They should concentrate on the prevention of a problem and not correction of the problem. Healthcare administrators need to combine the information from sentinel events with Total Quality Management steps in order to achieve the best results in the identification of root cause problems (Hanser, 2010). This helps in solving the potential root cause of the problem more so when the causes of a given problem are more than one. For the root cause analysis to be considered effective it has to be accompanied by conclusions and backed by documented confirmation. In carrying out the root cause analysis, it is important to aim at performance improvement rather than the mere treatment of the signs that are caused by the problem (Health Career Information, n.d.). The event established may have some slight failures which are generalizable in most cases.

The other stage is the data analysis stage which is an interactive process which involves the establishment of failures and successes of the event in question. An individual should also try to avoid causing more problems on top of the existing ones. In an effort to identify the solutions to the said problem, one should avoid the recurrence of the same solutions within the same problem. The data is collected in a sequence manner such that one can identify the stages and steps followed during that data collection exercise. Secondly Data collection stage which is aimed at establishing what happened during an interview, document review or during a field observation exercise (Nagelkerk, 2005). The problem is first defined before anything else is done then one prepares to look for possible solutions to the given problem. It is therefore important to perform a root cause analysis of the problem that a patient is experiencing before making a conclusive diagnosis of the problem.ĭuring the root cause analysis stage, there are a number of steps that are followed. A sentinel that reports on sentinel facilities reports is passed through accreditation so that only disclosable information is made available.ĭisclosing sensitive information breaches the legal rights that a patient has and may lead to prosecution. The sentinel events encourage only the accredited facilities to report are used so as to report only what is necessary and avoid what is not necessary. The revived sentinel (Brent, 2001) which waives some privileges on disclosing confidential information whenever making reports.

All sentinel events are identified by Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations. The result of a sentinel event could carry serious outcomes or even a risk to the patient involved. It may sometimes lead to a specific loss of a limb or total motor functioning. The cause is not necessarily associated to natural causes as it is for many other cases of death.

A sentinel event is an unanticipated healthcare setting resulting in either death or a serious physical or psychological injury to either a single or multiple patients (Joint Commission Resources, 2006).

Sentinel events in nursing