New Methods for Identifying Risk Control Techniques

​Frustrated with the difficulty in using techniques such as root-cause analysis and failure mode and effects analysis to identify risk control methods and concerned that the methods developed following root-cause analysis often focus on the weakest level of intervention, British researchers describe a new technique called Generating Options for Active Risk Control (GO-ARC) in the September-October Journal for Healthcare Quality. Using current techniques, the authors say, "has not yet managed to achieve any measurable improvement in patient safety at the systems level." As an alternative, they piloted the structured brainstorming technique with 60 attendees of a risk management educational meeting, who began by using the 5 Whys technique (i.e., asking the question "Why?" repeatedly to understand root causes of an adverse event) to understand a hypothetical inpatient suicide.