Quality and Safety Terms Flashcards

Serious Safety Event: Reaches the patient and results in moderate to severe harm or death.
Precursor Safety Event: Occurs, reaches the patient, and results in minimal or no detectable harm.
Near Miss Safety Event: Does not reach the patient; error is caught by detection barriers or chance.
Safety Event: Event, incident, or condition that could potentially cause direct harm to a patient.
Adverse Event: A patient safety event that results in harm to a patient.
Sentinel Event: A significant adverse event not primarily related to a patient's illness; results in death, permanent harm, or severe temporary harm (e.g., wrong breast removed).
No Harm Event: Reaches the patient but causes no harm (e.g., wrong medication with no adverse reaction).
Close Call / Good Catch: A patient safety event that did not reach the patient.

Hazardous (Unsafe Conditions): Circumstances that increase the likelihood of an adverse event, aside from the patient’s own condition (e.g., violence).

Quality Improvement Focus: Emphasize patient-centric approaches, teamwork, and data utilization.

Most Used Model: PDSA Cycle (Plan-Do-Study-Act).
- Plan: Identify the goal.
- Do: Implement the plan.
- Study: Monitor outcomes.
- Act: Integrate learnings to adjust the goal and plan the next cycle.