Examkin

Question

Difficulty: HardPatient Safety and Quality Improvement

A 45-year-old man is hospitalized for the treatment of acute lymphoblastic leukemia. His chemotherapy regimen requires the administration of intravenous vincristine and intrathecal methotrexate on the same day. Due to a workflow delay in the pharmacy, both medications are prepared and delivered to the nursing unit simultaneously. The medications are supplied in standard syringes of similar size and shape. During administration, a cross-covering nurse inadvertently connects the vincristine syringe to the patient's intrathecal port and administers the medication. The patient subsequently develops fatal ascending polyneuropathy. The hospital's quality improvement committee convenes a multidisciplinary team to perform a root cause analysis. They aim to implement a system-level intervention that utilizes human factors engineering to prevent this specific error from ever recurring. Which of the following proposed interventions is considered a forcing function and represents the most reliable strategy to achieve this goal?

  1. A
    Instituting a hospital-wide policy requiring a two-nurse independent double-check before administering any intrathecal medication
  2. Supplying intravenous vincristine exclusively in 50-mL mini-infusion bags rather than syringesAnswer
  3. C
    Applying brightly colored, fluorescent warning labels that read 'FATAL IF GIVEN INTRATHECALLY' on all vincristine preparations
  4. D
    Terminating the employment of the involved nurse and pharmacist to enforce a zero-tolerance policy for never events
  5. E
    Mandating the completion of an interactive online module on chemotherapy safety for all oncology staff members

Answer

Supplying intravenous vincristine exclusively in 50-mL mini-infusion bags rather than syringes
The correct answer involves redesigning the system to make the error physically impossible, which is known as a forcing function. In human factors engineering and patient safety, interventions are ranked by their reliability. Forcing functions (e.g., physical constraints, incompatible connections) are the strongest interventions because they do not rely on human memory, vigilance, or compliance. Supplying intravenous vincristine in a 50-mL mini-infusion bag physically prevents it from being connected to a standard spinal needle or intrathecal port, which typically require a syringe connection. This eliminates the physical possibility of inadvertent intrathecal administration, a well-documented and universally fatal medical error.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the systemic root cause of the adverse event.
The root cause is a system vulnerability where two fatal-if-swapped medications are packaged in physically compatible and similar-appearing syringes, allowing for a wrong-route error.
Understanding the systemic vulnerability is the first mandatory step in root cause analysis before designing an intervention.
2
Determine the goal of the requested intervention based on the stem.
The committee seeks a 'forcing function', which is a strong system-level intervention designed to make the error physically impossible.
In patient safety, interventions are ranked by reliability, with forcing functions being the most reliable because they remove human factors from the equation.
3
Evaluate the proposed options against the hierarchy of intervention effectiveness.
Mini-infusion bags cannot physically connect to an intrathecal port, creating a hard physical barrier. The other options rely on human vigilance (labels), human memory (training), human redundancy (double-checks), or punitive measures.
Physical constraints are significantly stronger and more sustainable than rules, education, or interpersonal checks.

Key Concept

Hierarchy of Intervention Effectiveness and Forcing Functions
Rate this question

Topics

Patient Safety and Quality Improvement

More questions from this topic