Causal Analysis Educational and Consulting Support

An estimated one in four patients experience an adverse event, with nine percent of these events causing significant harm. Approximately one quarter of these events are preventable. To enhance patient safety and prevent event reoccurrence, identification and resolution of contributing factors is critical. But some healthcare organizations struggle to develop an unbiased causal analysis process.

ECRI and the Institute for Safe Medication Practices PSO helps healthcare organizations decrease the reoccurrence of events, and the occurrence of adverse events using our causal analysis consulting, education, and resources. As one of the largest Patient Safety Organizations in the country, ECRI and the ISMP PSO combines unprecedented expertise, research, and data to elevate your Root Cause Analysis, Common Cause Analysis, Apparent Cause Analysis, and Healthcare Failure Modes and Effects Analysis processes, and can provide guidance on how to protect your documents from legal discovery.

Education to Enhance Your Causal Analysis Processes

Ongoing education is essential to ensure that your Root Cause Analysis, Common Cause Analysis, Apparent Cause Analysis, and Healthcare Failure Mode and Effects Analysis processes are getting to the true cause of adverse events. Through customizable virtual training, online education, or on-site learning (available upon request), you and your team will develop skills needed to effectively complete causal analysis. Available for individual learners and teams, these courses support advanced learners seeking to enhance their existing skills, and beginners who need to gain basic training.

Current Course Opportunities

Root Cause Analysis-in-Action: Building Foundations

During this two-day live virtual training, root cause analysis (RCA) experts will teach you the skills you need to effectively complete RCAs by guiding you through interactive didactics and case studies in small group settings. In addition to hands-on learning, participants will have the option of participating in a group follow-up call with RCA experts to discuss any additional questions and troubleshooting.

• Who should attend: risk managers, quality and performance improvement professionals, patient safety officers, any professional who may participate in or facilitate a root cause analysis
• Competency level: beginner to competent
• Cost: $1095 per person
• Continuing education units: Applications have been submitted.

Event dates for individual learners: March 19 and 21, 2024; September 17 and 19, 2024*

Root Cause Analysis: Advanced Principles and Practices

During this two-day live virtual training, root cause analysis (RCA) experts will cover advanced concepts, techniques, and strategies that will help participants improve their existing RCA process. Key concepts include just culture model, investigative interviewing, communication of safety events to patients and families, and principles of human factor engineering to operationalize and implement RCA improvement actions. This training will engage the audience in an interactive learning opportunity that blends didactic presentations by subject matter experts and group case study reviews and exercises.

• Who should attend: risk managers, quality and performance improvement professionals, patient safety officers, chief nursing officers, chief medical officers, administrators, directors of nursing
• Competency level: proficient to expert
• Cost: $1095 per person
• Continuing education units: Application will be made as courses are scheduled.

Event dates for individual learners: October 22 and 24, 2024*

Common Cause Analysis Principles and Practices

During this one-day live virtual training, causal analysis experts will cover concepts, techniques, and strategies that will help participants understand how to perform a common cause analysis. Common cause analysis involves understanding and recognizing patterns of variation that are inherent to a system. This is achieved by analyzing RCAs or safety event data over time to identify and aggregate common causes. Key concepts include systems theory, common cause analysis techniques and tools, aggregation of acts and causes, risk prioritization, and developing corrective actions. This training will engage the audience in an interactive learning opportunity that blends didactic presentations by subject matter experts and group case study reviews and exercises.

• Who should attend: risk managers, quality and performance improvement professionals, patient safety officers, chief nursing officers, chief medical officers, administrators, directors of nursing
• Competency level: proficient to expert
• Cost: $995 per person
• Continuing education units: Application will be made as courses are scheduled.
• Event dates for individual learners: December 5, 2024

Healthcare Failure Mode and Effects Analysis Course

Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) is a proactive approach for evaluating a process; it can help you assess 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.

• Who should attend: risk managers, quality and performance improvement professionals, patient safety officers, chief nursing officers, chief medical officers, administrators, directors of nursing
• Competency level: proficient to expert
• Cost: $995 per person
• Continuing education units: Application will be made as courses are scheduled.

Event dates for individual learners: Available in 2024*

Healthcare Incident Management and Investigation Course

Developed by ECRI's experienced team of investigators, the self-paced learning course consists of six 20-minute online, interactive modules. Each module describes a case study based on a real-life investigation and teaches users how to apply ECRI's seven-point Incident Management and Investigation (IMI) plan.

• Who should attend: risk managers, biomedical engineers, and healthcare providers Competency level: beginner to competent
• Cost: $900 USD for individual user / $600 USD per user for groups of 5 or more
• Continuing education units: 2.0 California State nursing contact hours; 2.0 ASHRM credits

Unbiased Guidance and Tools

As a leading patient safety entity, ECRI maintains a growing repository of guidance, checklists, and tools to support members on their safety journey, including our comprehensive Root Cause Analysis (RCA) Toolkit. Members in our Patient Safety Organization gives you access to a complete resource for improving your Causal Analysis processes. Our RCA Toolkit provides references and guidance to assist your team in improving causal analysis, while our PSO offers a protected environment to report you activities and receive customized feedback from our team of experts.

ECRI also offers free resources to support healthcare leaders as they seek to prevent harm, including our Root Cause Analysis in Aging Services White Paper and Incident Investigation in Aging Services White Paper.

Unparalleled Expert Review and Consulting

Our team of experts has worked with providers across the continuum of care to identify the root cause of adverse events and implement changes to reduce near-misses, hazards, and incidents long-term. The team consists of leaders in areas including:

• Clinical, risk management
• Safety, quality
• Pharmacy
• Device evaluation
• Accident investigation

Supported by a database of 2,000-plus analyzed casual documents, only ECRI and the ISMP PSO has the experience to provide you with feedback to enhance your analysis process. Our team is ready to support you with your various organization needs, including:

• Evaluation
• Education
• Expert forensic analysis
• Biomedical engineering
• Medication safety
• Infection prevention
• Aging services

*For organizational/group learning, please contact us.

Need custom support? Schedule time to talk with an expert.