WITH VERIFIED ANSWERS RATIONALES | CERTIFIED IN HEALTHCARE
QUALITY AND MANAGEMENT | REAL EXAM Q&A FORMAT | PHYSICIAN
ADVISOR TEST PREP
Question 1
Which report is thought to have launched the current patient safety
movement?
A) The Flexner Report
B) ✓ The IOM’s “To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System”
C) The Harvard Medical Practice Study
D) The Bristol Inquiry Report
Rationale: The Institute of Medicine’s Committee on Quality of Care in
America report “To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System” was issued
in 1999 and published by the National Academies Press in 2000. It is widely
credited with launching the current patient safety movement.
Question 2
What is the focus of voluntary reporting systems in healthcare?
A) Punishing individuals who make errors
B) ✓ Focusing on a broader set of errors, mainly those that do no or minimal
harm, to detect system weaknesses
C) Reporting only sentinel events
D) Reporting only medication errors
,Rationale: Voluntary reporting systems focus on a much broader set of
errors, mainly those that do no or minimal harm, and help detect system
weaknesses that can be fixed before the occurrence of serious harm.
Question 3
How is it proposed to foster participation in voluntary reporting systems?
A) Financial incentives for reporters
B) Public disclosure of all reported errors
C) ✓ Congress enacting laws to protect confidentiality of certain information
D) Mandatory reporting requirements
Rationale: Congress should enact laws to protect the confidentiality of
certain information collected to alleviate fears that such information may be
subpoenaed and used in lawsuits.
Question 4
What was learned from the aviation industry that applies to healthcare
safety?
A) Pressuring workers to be more careful improves safety
B) ✓ Much of aviation’s safety improvement came from applying principles of
social and cognitive psychology and human factors engineering
C) Safety improvements require punitive measures
D) Technology alone solves safety problems
,Rationale: Reinforcing current approaches to training and pressuring pilots to
be more careful would not improve safety. Much of aviation’s safety
improvement came from applying principles of social and cognitive
psychology and human factors engineering to its challenging work
environment.
Question 5
Human factors engineering contributes to safety through:
A) Increasing automation in all processes
B) ✓ Understanding the interrelations between humans, the tools they use,
and the environment
C) Reducing the number of staff involved in care
D) Standardizing all clinical decisions
Rationale: Human factors engineering contributes to safety by understanding
the interrelations between humans, the tools they use, and the environment
in which they live and work.
Question 6
What is the difference between complicated and complex systems?
A) Complicated systems are unpredictable; complex systems are predictable
B) ✓ Complicated systems function predictably; complex systems have
continually changing interrelationships
C) Both are equally predictable
D) Complex systems are simpler to manage
, Rationale: Complicated systems may include multiple individuals, supplies,
and steps, but function predictably. In complex systems, interrelationships
among individuals, technology, and other aspects affect each other and are
continually changing, so safety improvement never ends.
Question 7
Which of the following is a major complaint made by physicians against the
use of information obtained from outcomes assessment?
A) Increased market share will not be realized
B) Information about internal costs is not necessary
C) Information cannot be shifted to the point of service
D) ✓ The information is not statistically valid for individual physicians
Rationale: Physicians have complained that outcomes assessment
information is not statistically valid for individual physicians, making it
difficult to apply population-level data to individual practice patterns.
Question 8
A chief nursing officer pulls together a Quality Improvement team to improve
efficiency of transferring patients from the emergency department to patient
floors. To ensure efficient implementation of the newly designed process,
who must be part of the team?
A) Chief information officer
B) Chief medical officer
C) Chief operating officer