Question 1

What is a statistical method that measures standard deviations or known variance and the degree to which almost perfect production can occur?

Accepted Answer

Six Sigma was developed by Motorola as a quality improvement (QI) strategy. The term itself is derived for the Greek letter sigma, which statisticians use to measure standard deviations or known variance and the degree to which almost perfect production can occur. Six Sigma is based on a scientific method that involves improving, designing, and monitoring processes to minimize or eliminate waste while optimizing satisfaction and increasing financial stability.

Question 2

Which of the following targets customer needs and aims to improve processes by removing activities that are considered no-value-added?

Accepted Answer

The Lean methodology, derived for the Toyota production system, targets customer needs and aims to improve processes by removing activities that are considered no-value-added.

Question 3

Which of the following processes enables organizations to continuously measure services, practices, costs, and products using best practices to improve care?

Accepted Answer

Measures of quality and safety can track progress of improvement initiatives using reporting benchmarks. Benchmarking in health care is defined as the continual and collaborative discipline of measuring and comparing the results of key work processes with those who have what is considered best practices. This process enables organizations to continuously measure services, practices, costs, and products using best practices to improve care.

Question 4

Lack of skills and/or failure to follow or deviation from standard practices/procedures is known as:

Accepted Answer

Negligence (described as a lack of skills and/or failure to follow or deviation from standard practices/procedures) was determined to be the cause in 27.6% of adverse events.

Question 5

Prevention of safety events is critical in pediatric patients because, when a safety event occurs:

Accepted Answer

More recent reviews of potential pediatric safety issues reveal the hospitalized child who experiences a safety event, as compared with those who did not, has a length of stay 2 to 6 times longer, hospital mortality 2 to 18 times greater, and hospital charges 2 to 20 times higher.

Question 6

Which of the following types of infections are considered HAIs?
I. Catheter-associated blood stream infections
II. Catheter-associated urinary tract infections
III. Ventilator-associated pneumonias
IV. Surgical site infections

Accepted Answer

Financially, HAIs add $28 to $33 billion to health care costs. AHRQ researches barriers and challenges in preventing the most frequent and therefore most costly HAIs. These infections cause extended hospital stays and increased cost and risk of mortality. Types of infections include blood stream infections (BSIs), catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CATIs), surgical site infections (SSIs), and ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP), which together account for more than 80% of all HAIs.

Question 7

A therapist is assisting the pulmonologist during a bronchoscopy. While the child's oxygen saturation was reading above 90%, the patient had been apneic for approximately 1 minute and suffered a mild anoxic injury. What is the name of an event like this?

Accepted Answer

The Joint Commission (TJC) also reviews errors, which are classified as sentinel events. The Joint Commission defines a sentinel event is "an unexpected occurrence involving death or serious physical or psychological injury, or the risk thereof."

Question 8

What is the most common serious error observed in the NICU?

Accepted Answer

NICU data revealed 47% of errors were medication related, 11% involved patient misidentification, 7% involved delay or errors in diagnosis, and 14% involved errors in the administration or methods of using a treatment.

Question 9

What is the most common complication of hospital care that the therapist should be aware of?

Accepted Answer

Health care-associated infections (HAI) are infections that patients acquire while receiving treatment for another condition in some type of health care facility. Millions of infections with thousands of deaths occur annually, making HAIs the most common complication of hospital care.

Question 10

What has been described by the IOM as a necessary component of change needed to occur to improve patient safety?

Accepted Answer

Developing teams of caregivers for multidisciplinary communication was described early on by IOM as a necessary component of change that needed to occur to improve patient safety.

Question 11

The wrong dose of albuterol is administered to the patient, but the patient does not have any adverse response. What is the name of this event?

Accepted Answer

The second classification is a precursor safety event, an event that reaches the patient but results in minimal to no detectable harm. If that same dose error is not detected by the pharmacist or nurse and gets delivered to the patient but the patient does not have any adverse response, it is a precursor safety event.

Question 12

Which of the following postsurgical respiratory issues are associated with reintubation or prolonged mechanical ventilation?
I. Lack of use of incentive spirometry
II. Oversedation
III. Exacerbation of underlying cardiovascular condition
IV. Exacerbation of underlying respiratory condition

Accepted Answer

Respiratory issues postsurgery are not uncommon; reintubation or prolonged mechanical ventilation may be necessary. Causes include oversedation, exacerbation of underlying cardiovascular or respiratory conditions, and ventilator-associated pneumonia (AHRQ, 2011). Close attention should be paid to these risk factors.

Quiz 36: Quality and Safety