Handini Diny Rachma Putri, Dewi Arlina. Applying HFMEA to prevent response time delay of emergency cesarean section surgery service

Background: Patient safety is crucial for enhancing hospital care quality. Many medical errors are preventable, and a high incidence of adverse events and near-misses in hospitals indicates room for improvement. The identification and mitigation of potential failure modes within a service process can prevent numerous adverse events. One effective approach involves identifying failure modes within the service process. Healthcare failure mode and effect analysis (HFMEA), based on a systems approach to problem-solving, is an important aspect of patient safety efforts. According to national quality indicators, emergency obstetric services should be capable of initiating caesarean delivery within 30 minutes of the decision to operate.

Objective: To identify failure modes in the patient service process for emergency cesarean sections and the root causes of failures in subprocesses.

Materials and methods: This qualitative study was presented descriptively and involved focus group discussions with personnel directly involved in the service process of emergency cesarean section surgery.

Results: Eleven process flows were identified in the emergency cesarean section surgery service, encompassing 16 service subprocesses, and more than 30 failure modes were discovered across all service subprocesses. Of these, five failure modes necessitated follow-up and action.

Conclusion: This study highlights five critical failure modes that require attention. This suggests the need to enhance the flow of the emergency cesarean section service process and boost the commitment of all service providers.