Risk management in IVF

Patient safety incidents occur in approximately 10% of hospital admissions in the UK. Although robust data are not available, assisted conception is unlikely to be any less prone to adverse incidents; indeed there have been several high-profile cases which have drawn attention to this problem. Recently established national reporting systems for adverse events are collecting data which will inform trends in patient safety. Because of the nature of the work undertaken in assisted conception, there is the potential to affect not only future generations but also many patients simultaneously because of storage of biological material. It is therefore important to implement strategies to reduce the likelihood of patient safety incidents. Established methodologies exist for the reactive (root cause analysis) and the proactive assessment of risk (failure mode effects analysis). Furthermore, establishing the detail of a process and its context through process mapping is an important prerequisite for understanding its risk. The knowledge gained through these enquiries enables the implementation of an effective risk management programme which this chapter examines in detail.