Failure Mode and Effects Analysis for Patient Safety Improvement Virtual Safe Table

Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) is a proactive approach for evaluating a process; it can help you access possibilities for failure and the potential impact, and identify the parts of the process that are most in need of change. FMEA includes review of steps in the process, failure modes, causes, and effects.

While the methodology was not specifically developed for healthcare, it’s a commonly utilized causal analysis approach to enhance care.

During this virtual safe table, experts from ECRI and the Institute for Safe Medication Practices PSO, University of Utah, and Northern Arizona Healthcare will share examples and lessons learned from conducting FMEAs to identify and minimize potential risks that could impact the quality of patient care. Join our experts as they discuss this causal analysis methodology and how you can implement it within your own facility.

Learning objectives

During this virtual safe table, our speakers will:

• Identify the benefits of using the failure mode and effectiveness methodology to improve processes related to patient safety
• State the differences between process steps and failure modes
• Describe the scoring ratings for severity, occurrence (frequency) and detectability of failure modes
• Define strong action strategies

Registration for this event is now closed.

Mary C. Magee, MSN, RN, CPHQ, CPPS

Senior Patient Safety / Quality Analyst and Consultant, ECRI
In her role with ECRI and the Institute for Safe Medication Practices, Mary provides liaison services for member organizations, reviews and analyzes adverse event reports and uses the information to develop written material, continuing education programs, webinars, and presentations to inform and educate health care facilities about regulatory, quality improvement, and patient safety issues. Prior to joining ECRI, she was Senior Director of Quality, Regulatory Affairs, and Patient Safety for a large multi-hospital health system. She has extensive experience leading multiple successful routine and for-cause CMS, Department of Health and Joint Commission surveys; instituted and maintained accreditation and regulatory preparedness; and conceived and lead the successful implementation of the strategic direction for quality, safety and performance improvement.

Anna L. Thomas MSN, RN, CCRN, CPPS, CNL

Patient Safety Analyst III, ECRI
Anna started her career as a critical care nurse in a neuroscience intensive care unit. She earned a master's of science in nursing (MSN) and became a certified clinical nurse leader (CNL). She served as a CNL for a 12 bed ICU where she was responsible for nursing sensitive quality indicators, risk mitigation, cost reduction, event reporting and analysis, and utilizing data to drive quality improvement projects. She chaired the Evidence Based Practice and Nursing Research committee. In her current role, she utilizes her clinical background to review ECRI publications to ensure the most accurate and current information, has redesigned the research response process, and was on the inaugural Safety Sprint team focusing on mitigating the staffing shortage. As co-chair of the Causal Analysis team, she is responsible for data collection and analysis for multiple forms of causal analysis.

Susan Goldberg, MPA, BSN, RN

Director of Accreditation and Patient Safety, Northern Arizona Healthcare
Susan is a Registered Nurse with a BSN in nursing, master’s in public administration, and 25-plus years of healthcare experience, the majority of which has been devoted to Patient Safety, Performance Improvement, Regulatory Affairs, and improving the patient and family experience. She spent 14-plus years at Maimonides Medical Center, a 711-bed tertiary care facility in Brooklyn, moving from Director of Organizational Performance to Vice President. After leaving Maimonides, Susan served as the Chief Quality Officer & Associate Executive Director at NYC Health + Hospitals/ Elmhurst where I was responsible for Quality, Accreditation / Regulatory Affairs and Risk Management. She also served on the Executive Emergency Management Team while Elmhurst was the epicenter of the COVID -19 pandemic. In August 2022, Susan joined Northern Arizona Healthcare as the System Director of Accreditation and Patient Safety, overseeing organizational regulatory activities and Patient Safety Programs.

Kimberly Taylor, DHA Candidate, MPA, BSIE, SSGB

Quality Improvement Specialist, Nemours Children’s Health
In her role, Kimberly is responsible for supporting multidisciplinary teams on quality improvement initiatives with a focus on improving key care processes and clinical outcomes. She has been working in the healthcare industry for over six years. Her career path was initially launched by pursuing the industrial engineering route, but her personal experiences with healthcare have sparked a desire to navigate her skills within the system to ensure that quality and efficient care are present in all processes. Kimberly received her bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from Clemson University and her master’s degree in public administration from Strayer University. She is pursuing her doctorate in healthcare administration with a concentration in healthcare quality and analytics at Capella University.

Jonathan Ledbetter, PhD, CPE, CSP

Human Factors Engineer, Nemours Children’s Health
Prior to joining Nemours, Jonathan was a faculty member in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Indiana University where he taught courses in the fields of Human Factors, Ergonomics, Industrial Psychology, and Organizational Psychology. He also served as the Coordinator of the Psychology of Business program where he developed and launched a Bachelor of Science degree program in Organizational and Business Psychology, a first of its kind in the U.S. In addition to his work as an educator, Jonathan has extensive experience as a practitioner in the fields of safety, risk management, and human system design, most notably, his work at the Walt Disney World Resort in mitigating risks for guests and cast members.

Deborah Sax, MS, RN, CPPS

Senior Patient Safety Clinical Consultant, University of Utah
Deborah began her career in nursing and worked in neonatal intensive care unit, pediatric intensive care unit, and emergency department. In 2005, she obtained a master's in nursing informatics and moved into an informaticist role and focused on collecting requirements and developing information technology solutions in the legacy/homegrown electronic medical record (EMR) for the pediatric population. From that role, she moved to work with an EMR and then into a value analysis role. In her current role, she utilizes her previous experience daily to inform investigations, causal analysis, and FMEA. Her current work includes conducting fatality reviews with the State Medical Examiner and our Zero Suicide Initiative, as well as learning and developing action plans from wrong site surgery, medication errors, falls, pressure injury, unexpected death, closing the loop on critical tests in radiology and more.