Certified Professional in Patient Safety (CPPS) Practice Exam

How should a hospital prioritize actions based on risk priority numbers in FMEA?

1. Address all identified failure modes equally

2. Select failure modes based solely on team preference

3. Focus on failure modes with the highest scores

4. Disregard modes with acceptable risk

The correct answer is: Focus on failure modes with the highest scores

Prioritizing actions based on risk priority numbers (RPN) in Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) is a crucial step in risk management within healthcare settings. FMEA is a structured approach that helps teams identify potential failure modes in a process, assign values for the severity, occurrence, and detection of those failures, and calculate an RPN for each mode. Focusing on failure modes with the highest scores is essential because these modes represent the most significant risks to patient safety and quality of care. By concentrating efforts on the highest RPN scores, healthcare providers can effectively allocate resources and implement interventions that will have the most considerable impact on reducing risk. This method allows for a systematic approach to patient safety, ensuring that the most pressing issues are addressed first, ultimately leading to improved patient outcomes. In contrast, addressing all identified failure modes equally would dilute efforts and resources, potentially leaving critical risks unmitigated. Selecting failure modes based solely on team preference introduces subjectivity that may overlook data-driven priority rankings inherent in the RPN calculation. Disregarding modes with acceptable risk could also be shortsighted, as even lower-risk modes might evolve into more significant issues if left unaddressed. Thus, prioritizing based on RPN scores ensures a