Identifying and correcting communication failures among health professionals working in the Emergency Department

Objective: The aim of this study was to identify effective corrective measures to ensure patient safety in the Paediatric Emergency Department (ED). Methods: In order to outline a clear picture of these risks, we conducted a Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) and a Failure Mode, Effects, and Criticality Analysis (FMECA), at a Emergency Department of a Children's Teaching Hospital in Northern Italy. The Error Modes were categorised according to Vincent's Taxonomy of Causal Factors and correlated with the Risk Priority Number (RPN) to determine the priority criteria for the implementation of corrective actions. Results: The analysis of the process and outlining the risks allowed to identify 22 possible failures of the process. We came up with a mean RPN of 182, and values >100 were considered to have a high impact and therefore entailed a corrective action. Conclusions: Mapping the process allowed to identify risks linked to health professionals' non-technical skills. In particular, we found that the most dangerous Failure Modes for their frequency and harmfulness were those related to communication among health professionals.