PATIENT SAFETY EXAM 1 | QUALITY
SPECIALIST | LATEST 2025-2026 QUESTION
AND CORRECT ANSWER WITH EXPLANATION
WEST COAST UNIVERSITY
1. A hospitalized patient receives the wrong medication dose due to
similar packaging. What type of error is this?
A. Diagnostic error
B. Latent system error
C. Active human error
D. Random error
Correct Answer: C
Rationale: Active errors occur at the point of care and involve direct
human action.
2. Which best defines a “near miss” in patient safety?
A. An event causing permanent harm
B. An error that reaches the patient but causes no harm
C. An error intercepted before reaching the patient
D. A documented adverse event
Correct Answer: C
Rationale: Near misses are errors caught before reaching the patient.
3. A patient develops a hospital-acquired infection caused by poor
hand hygiene compliance. This is classified as:
A. Sentinel event
B. Preventable adverse event
C. Diagnostic error
D. Natural disease progression
Correct Answer: B
Rationale: Infections from poor infection control are preventable adverse
events.
,4. Which tool is most commonly used for root cause analysis (RCA)?
A. SWOT analysis
B. Fishbone (Ishikawa) diagram
C. Gantt chart
D. PERT analysis
Correct Answer: B
Rationale: Fishbone diagrams help identify contributing system factors.
5. A sentinel event is best defined as:
A. Minor medication error
B. Event requiring patient observation only
C. Unexpected event resulting in death or serious harm
D. Routine clinical complication
Correct Answer: C
Rationale: Sentinel events involve severe harm or death.
6. Which quality metric focuses on “doing the right thing correctly”?
A. Efficiency
B. Effectiveness
C. Safety
D. Equity
Correct Answer: C
Rationale: Safety ensures harm prevention during care delivery.
7. A nurse skips a verification step during medication administration
due to workload. This is an example of:
A. Violation
B. Latent error
C. Equipment failure
D. Diagnostic error
, Correct Answer: A
Rationale: Violations are intentional deviations from protocol.
8. The primary goal of a clinical audit is to:
A. Punish staff errors
B. Compare performance against standards
C. Increase workload
D. Replace clinical guidelines
Correct Answer: B
Rationale: Audits measure compliance with standards of care.
9. Which is the strongest indicator of patient safety culture?
A. Number of beds
B. Staff satisfaction surveys and reporting rates
C. Hospital size
D. Revenue performance
Correct Answer: B
Rationale: Safety culture is reflected in reporting and perceptions.
10. A wrong-site surgery is classified as:
A. Near miss
B. Sentinel event
C. Minor adverse event
D. Administrative error
Correct Answer: B
Rationale: Wrong-site surgery is a never event.
11. What is the primary purpose of a clinical “barrier” in safety
systems?
SPECIALIST | LATEST 2025-2026 QUESTION
AND CORRECT ANSWER WITH EXPLANATION
WEST COAST UNIVERSITY
1. A hospitalized patient receives the wrong medication dose due to
similar packaging. What type of error is this?
A. Diagnostic error
B. Latent system error
C. Active human error
D. Random error
Correct Answer: C
Rationale: Active errors occur at the point of care and involve direct
human action.
2. Which best defines a “near miss” in patient safety?
A. An event causing permanent harm
B. An error that reaches the patient but causes no harm
C. An error intercepted before reaching the patient
D. A documented adverse event
Correct Answer: C
Rationale: Near misses are errors caught before reaching the patient.
3. A patient develops a hospital-acquired infection caused by poor
hand hygiene compliance. This is classified as:
A. Sentinel event
B. Preventable adverse event
C. Diagnostic error
D. Natural disease progression
Correct Answer: B
Rationale: Infections from poor infection control are preventable adverse
events.
,4. Which tool is most commonly used for root cause analysis (RCA)?
A. SWOT analysis
B. Fishbone (Ishikawa) diagram
C. Gantt chart
D. PERT analysis
Correct Answer: B
Rationale: Fishbone diagrams help identify contributing system factors.
5. A sentinel event is best defined as:
A. Minor medication error
B. Event requiring patient observation only
C. Unexpected event resulting in death or serious harm
D. Routine clinical complication
Correct Answer: C
Rationale: Sentinel events involve severe harm or death.
6. Which quality metric focuses on “doing the right thing correctly”?
A. Efficiency
B. Effectiveness
C. Safety
D. Equity
Correct Answer: C
Rationale: Safety ensures harm prevention during care delivery.
7. A nurse skips a verification step during medication administration
due to workload. This is an example of:
A. Violation
B. Latent error
C. Equipment failure
D. Diagnostic error
, Correct Answer: A
Rationale: Violations are intentional deviations from protocol.
8. The primary goal of a clinical audit is to:
A. Punish staff errors
B. Compare performance against standards
C. Increase workload
D. Replace clinical guidelines
Correct Answer: B
Rationale: Audits measure compliance with standards of care.
9. Which is the strongest indicator of patient safety culture?
A. Number of beds
B. Staff satisfaction surveys and reporting rates
C. Hospital size
D. Revenue performance
Correct Answer: B
Rationale: Safety culture is reflected in reporting and perceptions.
10. A wrong-site surgery is classified as:
A. Near miss
B. Sentinel event
C. Minor adverse event
D. Administrative error
Correct Answer: B
Rationale: Wrong-site surgery is a never event.
11. What is the primary purpose of a clinical “barrier” in safety
systems?
