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Quality and Risk Management in the IVF Laboratory
Figure 7.3
The Plan–Do–Check–Act or ”PDCA” cycle.
benefit. This overall sequence can also be described as the “Plan–Do– Check–Act” or PDCA Cycle (see Figure 7.3), sometimes called the Shewhart or Deming cycle (Hutchison, 1994). PDCA-derived knowledge of how a process is currently performing is used to identify and test process changes (improvements). Scientists will immediately recognize the PDCA Cycle as a simple expression of fundamental scientific method.
Root cause analysis
Root Cause Analysis (RCA) is a sequence of steps by which the underlying causes (“Contributory Factors”) of adverse outcomes are identified with the goal of preventing the recurrence of such events. Unless an RCA is undertaken with the full support of upper management it might well be performed in a perfunctory manner for the sole purpose of meeting some regulatory requirement. There is increasing application of RCA in healthcare due to a growing recognition that the complexity of medicine and its delivery is driving the incidence of adverse events (Bogner, 1994; Sharpe and Faden, 1998). Again it must be emphasized that most errors result from faulty systems