Trigger Tools

How should we measure the harm we cause in healthcare? One method, increasingly widely used, is a trigger tool. These are standardized and validated instruments with which one reviews a random selection of medical charts; when a "trigger" is identified that might signal a possible harmful occurrence, the chart is reviewed in more detail to determine whether harm did occur. There are two benefits; an organisation can measure the harm it is causing over time and take steps to reduce the harm, and second, measure its effectiveness in reducing harm over time. In contrast to conventional incident reporting, the rate of harm detected by these tools is 2-5 fold higher. For more reading, I would suggest the following; IHI and NHSIII