Commission Introduction
List of preferred Terms and Definitions of the former Council
Sequence in which to read the Terms and Definitions
Commission Introduction
As part of the Commission’s 5 year work plan, the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care will be recommending national data sets and standards, including definitions of key terms. This work will be done in collaboration with national health information committees.
Valuable work was carried out by the former Council. Definitions developed by them were published in a special issue of the Medical Journal of Australia in May 2006 (Runciman W.B. Shared meanings: preferred terms and definitions for safety and quality concepts. MJA 2006; 184: S41-S43. Copyright 2006). The Medical Journal of Australia - reproduced with permission.
List of preferred terms and definitions devised by the former Australian Council for Safety and Quality in Health Care
Introduction
* An asterisk indicates that there are further terms within that definition which are also defined. For example, the term “incident*” contains the additional terms (in bold) “event”, “circumstance”, “harm”, “complaint” and “loss”, which are themselves defined.
The definition for “harm*”, in turn, contains the terms “disease”, “injury”, “suffering” and “disability”, each of which is also defined.
Terms and Definitions
Accountable Being held responsible.
Accreditation* Being granted recognition for meeting designated standards for structure, process and outcome.
Adverse event* An incident in which harm resulted to a person receiving health care.
Adverse reaction* An adverse event where the correct process was followed for the context in which the event occurred but unexpected and unpreventable harm resulted. (For example, an adverse drug reaction will be said to have occurred when the right drug was used for the correct indication in the right dose given by the right route, but the patient suffered unexpected and unpreventable harm. Adverse reactions can also result from some diagnostic tests, therapeutic interventions or devices.)
Agent One who, or that which, acts to produce a change.
Benchmark A criterion against which something is measured.
Blame To hold at fault (implies culpability).
Circumstance* All the factors connected with or influencing an event, agent or person/s.
Complaint An expression of dissatisfaction with something.
Credentialling* The process of assessing and conferring approval on a person’s suitability to provide a defined type of health care. (Can be synonymous with clinical privileging.)
Disability* Any type of impairment of body structure or function, activity limitation and/or restriction of participation in society, associated with a past or present harm.
Disease A physiological or psychological dysfunction.
Error Unintentionally being wrong in conduct or judgement. Errors may occur by doing the wrong thing (commission) or by failing to do the right thing (omission).
Event Something that happens to or with a person.
Harm* Harm includes disease, injury, suffering, disability and death.
Hazard* A circumstance or agent that can lead to harm, damage or loss.
Health* A state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.
Health care* Services provided to individuals or communities to promote, maintain, monitor, or restore health. Health care is not limited to medical care and includes self-care.
Health care incident* An event or circumstance during health care which could have, or did, result in unintended or unnecessary harm to a person and/or a complaint, loss or damage.
Health care outcome* The health status of an individual, a group of people or a population which is wholly or partially attributable to an action, agent or circumstance.
Iatrogenic* Arising from or associated with health care rather than an underlying disease or injury.
Incident* An event or circumstance which could have resulted, or did result, in unintended or unnecessary harm to a person and/or a complaint, loss or damage.
Injury* Damage to tissues caused by an agent or circumstance.
Liability Responsibility for an action according to the law or in a legal sense.
Loss Any negative consequence, including financial.
Monitor To check, supervise, observe critically, or record the progress of an activity, action or system on a regular basis in order to identify and/or track change.
Near miss* An incident that did not cause harm.
Negligence (civil or criminal)* An incident causing harm, damage or loss as the result of doing something wrong or failing to provide a reasonable level of care in a circumstance in which one has a duty of care.
Nosocomial Pertaining to or originating in a hospital (synonymous with “hospital-acquired”).
Outcome* The status of an individual, a group of people or a population which is wholly or partially attributable to an action, agent or circumstance.
Preventable* Accepted by the community as potentially avoidable in the particular set of circumstances.
Quality (degree of)* The extent to which a service or product produces a desired outcome or outcomes.
Quality of health care (degree of)* The extent to which a health care service or product produces a desired outcome or outcomes.
Risk The chance of something happening that will have a negative impact. It is measured in terms of consequences and likelihood.
Risk management* In health care, designing and implementing a program of activities to identify and avoid or minimise risks to patients, employees, visitors and the institution; to minimise financial losses (including legal liability) that might arise consequentially; and to transfer risk to others through payment of premiums (insurance).
Root cause analysis* A systematic process whereby the factors which contributed to an incident are identified.
Safety* Freedom from hazard.
Side effect* An effect, other than that intended, produced by an agent (see also “adverse reaction”).
Stakeholder Those people and organisations who may affect, be affected by, or perceive themselves to be affected by, a decision or activity.
Standard Agreed attributes and processes designed to ensure that a product, service or method will perform consistently at a designated level.
Suffering* Experiencing anything subjectively unpleasant. This may include pain, malaise, nausea, vomiting, loss, depression, agitation, alarm, fear or grief.
System failure A fault, breakdown or dysfunction within an organisation’s operational methods, processes or infrastructure.
System improvement* The result or outcome of the culture, processes and structures that are directed towards the prevention of system failure and the improvement in safety and quality.
Page currency, Latest update: 23 March, 2007
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