Joint Commission Guideline Compliance

Guidelines are just that, they are attempts to provide affected users a framework to work within to produce an accurate intended result. The Guideline in this case in the Joint Commission document entitled, "Conducting a Root Cause Analysis in Response to a Sentinel Event". This document clearly delineates the framework or guidelines (the means) to help users. However, producing an accurate result is the main goal (the ends).

 

The guidelines state:

"This framework is offered as an aid in organizing the steps in your RCA, determining appropriate actions as part of a risk reduction strategy, and identifying how the effectiveness of those actions will be measured. It is intended only to provide general guidance, not to prescribe any particular model, approach, or set of analytical tools. The approach and tools that you use will ultimately depend on the nature of the event itself, the characteristics of the organization, and the experience and preferences of the people involved."

 

The Joint Commission has provided some options in terms of guidelines, but the results are what are most important. Therefore, analysts have the latitude to choose the analysis tool they feel most comfortable with.

 

The Joint Commission guidelines as discussed earlier, provide a framework of various RCA techniques to accomplish the purpose of drawing accurate conclusions (causes). PROACT® takes all the various methods described: Flowcharting, Cause and Effect, Change Analysis, Barrier Analysis, Failure Modes and Effects Analysis and Fault Tree Analysis and rolls it into ONE user-friendly application.