The 5 Whys Hospital Quality Academy 1

The 5 Whys Tool in Healthcare Quality Improvement | Root Cause Analysis Explained When a clinical incident happens, it’s tempting to blame “human error” and stop there. But that rarely explains why it happened, or how to keep it from happening again. In this video, you’ll learn how to use the 5 Whys, a simple but powerful problem-solving tool, to move beyond the immediate error and uncover the process and system issues behind it. We walk through an example of a wrong medication administration in a hospital, step by step: from defining the problem, to asking “why”, to turning findings into practical improvement actions. In this video, you’ll learn: ✅ What the 5 Whys tool is and when to use it ✅ How to define a problem before asking why ✅ How to apply the 5 Whys to a medication incident ✅ How to turn findings into targeted improvement actions ✅ Common mistakes to avoid, including stopping at “human error” and blaming individuals Chapters 0:00 What is the 5 Whys tool? 1:01 Define the problem 1:51 Apply the 5 Whys: a medication incident example 2:58 Identify improvement opportunities 3:57 Common mistakes to avoid 4:53 Recap: from problem to prevention 5:50 Closing Don’t just fix the error. Reduce the chance it happens again. This video is for nurses, doctors, pharmacists, quality and patient safety professionals, and anyone preparing for accreditation or working in healthcare improvement. 📌 Subscribe to Hospital Quality Academy for practical lessons on healthcare quality improvement, patient safety, Lean Six Sigma, KPIs, documentation audits and JCI accreditation. A new video every two weeks. 💬 Have you used the 5 Whys in your organisation? Share your experience in the comments. Disclaimer: The incident in this video is a hypothetical example for teaching purposes. It is not an account of any real event. Always follow your organisation’s policies and incident management procedures. #5Whys #RootCauseAnalysis #PatientSafety #QualityImprovement #HealthcareQuality #MedicationSafety #LeanSixSigma #JCI