Are you ready and willing to get to the root causes of problems? As Medicare, Medicaid, and major insurance companies increasingly deny payment for never events, it has become imperative that hospitals and doctors develop new ways to prevent these avoidable catastrophes from recurring. Written by a reliability expert, this book provides a perspective on patient care, risk management, and quality management from outside the healthcare industry and culture. Challenging perceptions about Root Cause Analysis (RCA), it provides a new approach that includes tools such as Basic Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) and Opportunity Analysis (OA) which help quantify and prioritize events which deserve the attention of true RCA. The authors begin by defining the events that require RCA to maximize the effect on the patient. They address not only the proactive methodologies but also the organizational paradigms that must change in order to support and sustain such activities in the interest of patient safety.