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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2011 Aug 1.
Published in final edited form as: Jt Comm J Qual Patient Saf. 2010 Aug;36(8):376–384. doi: 10.1016/s1553-7250(10)36056-9

Table 1.

Different Ways to Sort Failure Modes According to the Score To Be Considered*

Likelihood
× Impact
on patient
× Impact
on nurse
Likelihood
× Impact
on patient
Likelihood
× Impact
on nurse
Likelihood Impact on
patient
Impact on
nurse
C9 IV pump malfunctioning 1 1 1 4 1 1
C17 No line available to administer IV med 2 2 1 4 2 1
C15 Patient status contra-indicates med 3 3 4 5 2 -
A3 Critical equipment not working 4 7 8 - 1 1
C10 RN lacks knowledge on med 5 6 7 - 2 -
C5 MAR is inaccurate: discontinued med still appears on MAR 6 4 2 2 - -
G2 Receiving incomplete information: recognize later in the shift 7 4 2 2 - -
D2 Inadequate monitoring/reevaluating 8 5 6 - - -
A11 RN does not perform patient assessment updates 9 - 5 - - 1
C14 Patient allergic to med 10 - - - 1 1
*

The failure modes are sorted in decreasing criticality score and ranked from 1 to 10. The ranks are produced by multiplying two scores and by individual scores. Identical rankings (identical numbers in the same column) correspond to equal scores for different failure modes. IV, intravenous; med, medication; RN, registered nurse; MAR, medication administration record.