In 2004 the UMC Utrecht did a pilot using HFMEA to analyse the use of one type of chemotherapeutic agent in one of the childrens’ wards.
A multidisciplinary team was assembled including physicians, nurses, a pharmacist and the mother of a patient. The team met seven times with two week intervals, the first two times for 60 minutes and afterwards for 90 minutes. This change was made because usually the first half hour was needed to get everybody on track.
Between meetings some teammembers made “homework”, for example a literature search. It was also expected that the teammembers would discuss the preliminary findings with their colleagues between the meetings, so as to get feedback.
The results can be seen on the poster below (PDF) or read in this article:
Tilburg CM van, Leistikow IP, Rademaker CMA, Bierings MB, Dijk ATH van. Healthcare Failure Mode and Effect Analysis: a useful proactive risk analysis in a pediatric oncology ward. Qual Saf Health Care 2006;15:58-64.