Discussion of the Combined Application Value of HFMEA and RCA in the Hospital Drug Cold Chain Management

OBJECTIVE To explore the combined application effect of Healthcare Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (HFMEA) and root cause analysis (RCA) in safety management of the hospital drug cold chain management. METHODS According to the principle of tracing method, HFMEA method was used to evaluate hospital cold chain drugs daily management, and RCA was used to analyze and evaluate the key mode in these potential failure modes so as to find the root cause which might affect the safety of the hospital drug cold chain management, then the improved measures were implemented and the effects of new measurement were evaluated. RESULTS After combined application of HFMEA model and RCA, drug adverse events occurred in the hospital cold chain management were significantly decreased; the risk priority number (RPN) reflecting drug safety management of cold chain decreased from 369 points to 45 points, and the cold chain scission point in each department deceased from 29 to 4, and the cold chain broken time down from 190 min to 12.5 min, with statistically significant difference (P<0.05) before and after the implementation. CONCLUSION The combined application of HFMEA and RCA in the hospital drug cold chain management can improve the risk awareness of hospital cold chain drug management, reduce the incidence of adverse drug events.