Table 3 Attitudes of healthcare professionals regarding the conduct and benefits of root cause analyses.
| Questionnaire item | Participants responding, n (%) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Strongly agree | Agree | Unsure | Disagree | Strongly disagree | |
| Undertaking an RCA is a time‐consuming business. Is it good use of staff time and resources? (n = 252) | 59 (23.4) | 124 (49.2) | 51 (20.2) | 13 (5.2) | 5 (2.0) |
| RCAs should be conducted by colleagues with a clinical background and not by outsiders (n = 250) | 25 (10.0) | 173 (29.2) | 60 (24.0) | 85 (34.0) | 7 (2.8) |
| Consumers should be part of RCA teams (n = 248) | 32 (12.9) | 82 (33.1) | 70 (28.2) | 48 (19.4) | 16 (6.5) |
| The achievements and benefits of conducting RCAs are that they: | |||||
| Improve work processes (n = 252) | 80 (31.7) | 143 (56.7) | 24 (9.5) | 3 (1.2) | 2 (0.8) |
| Improve patient safety (n = 251) | 82 (32.5) | 139 (55.4) | 25 (10.0) | 3 (1.2) | 2 (0.8) |
| Help people work together in teams (n = 249) | 60 (24.1) | 140 (56.2) | 40 (16.1) | 9 (3.6) | 0 (0) |
| Improve communication about patient care (n = 252) | 70 (27.8) | 131 (52.0) | 42 (16.7) | 8 (3.2) | 1 (0.4) |
| Improve patient outcomes (n = 247) | 57 (23.1) | 134 (54.3) | 49 (19.8) | 5 (2.0) | 2 (0.8) |
| Improve the standing of my profession (n = 252) | 40 (15.9) | 95 (37.7) | 88 (34.9) | 21 (8.3) | 8 (3.2) |
RCA, root cause analysis.