Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Correspondence to
Dr Alan J Card, Evidence-Based
‘The Problem with…’ series covers controversial topics related to efforts to improve health-
Health Solutions, LLC, PO Box care quality, including widely recommended but deceptively difficult strategies for improve-
62, Notre Dame, IN 46556, ment and pervasive problems that seem to resist solution.
USA; alan.j.card@gmail.com
midges were dazzled by the lights and flew at high oversimplifies the process of problem exploration that
speed into the walls of the memorial, leaving it splat- it should not be used at all. It forces users down a
tered with bits of the insects and their eggs.12 14 single analytical pathway for any given problem,13
But that only speaks to the details that were insists on a single root cause as the target for solu-
described. The analysis is also incomplete in a number tions9 13 20 and assumes that the most distal link on
of more important ways. For instance, it only the causal pathway (the fifth ‘why’) is inherently the
addresses one potential source of deterioration: clean- most effective and efficient place to intervene.
ing water.
The first ‘why’ could just as easily have tackled A single causal pathway
other causes, such as rain or acid rain (a significant A credible ‘5 whys’ approach to a wrong patient medi-
concern at the time), rising damp, erosion from wind- cation error might look like this (adapted from Battles
borne particles or damage from freeze-thaw cycles.15 et al):21
Or, if the goal had been to prevent harm to future Incident: Wrong patient medication error
monuments, the first ‘why’ could have focused on the Why? Wristband not checked
use of marble as a building material, the choice of Why? Wristband missing
building site, etc. Why? Wristband printer on the unit was broken
However, the most important problem with this Why? Label jam
example is that, while the solution was ‘effective’ in Why? Poor product design
one sense, it still failed: But another team could easily come up with five
wholly different and equally valid ‘whys’. And any
Messersmith [the consultant entomologist who
worked on this project] thought that because the
single string of ‘5 whys’ can provide only a blinkered
insects swarmed only at sunset, a one-hour delay in view of the complex causal pathway that led to the
turning on the monument lights would go far in incident. This is illustrated by figure 1, a causal tree
solving the problem. The technique worked, reducing diagram (or, more accurately, a ‘causal and contribut-
the number of midges in the monuments by about 85 ing factors tree diagram’) depicting the underlying
percent. issues that gave rise to the adverse event.
It is clear from the tree diagram that the causal
‘But tourists who had driven hundreds of miles to
have their photographs taken at the monuments were
pathway related to the wristband printer is neither the
not happy,’ he said. ‘They complained every day, and only relevant cause of the incident nor indisputably
the lights went back on.’16 the most important. A serious effort to solve the
myriad problems that gave rise to this incident would
The logic of the solution was sound, as far as it have to tackle a number of other causal pathways as
went. But it was predicated on an incomplete under- well.
standing of the broader system, its stakeholders and These might include pathways related to a maladap-
the purpose of the monument itself. If anything, this tive workplace culture,22–25 clinical and information
window on the complexity of real-world problem technology (IT) staffing, orientation of agency staff
solving adds to the value of this teaching example. If and the absence of a forcing function26 to ensure that
the first ‘aha moment’ is followed by this second one, patients are properly identified before medication is
trainees will not only learn that distal causes can have administered. It could also include a focus on
unexpected outcomes, but also that systems thinking improved infection control and better preparedness
requires both depth and breadth of analysis. for infectious disease outbreaks. Solutions based on
the ‘5 whys’ in the example above would leave all of
THE PROBLEM WITH ‘5 WHYS’ IN RCA these issues unaddressed.
‘5 whys’ has been the subject of a number of caveats There is also no objective or reliable means of
and critiques. For instance, Minoura, one of Ohno’s mapping out the causal pathway, which is a critical
successors at Toyota, highlights the potential for users failing when only one pathway will be examined.
to rely on off-the-cuff deduction, rather than situated Consider the variant below, which follows essentially
observation when developing answers, as well as diffi- the same causal reasoning as the first example:
culty in prioritising causes, if multiple ‘5 whys’ are Incident: Wrong patient medication error
used.17 Mark Graban, a thought leader in the Lean Why? Wristband missing
community, points out that ‘5 whys’ is just one com- Why? Wristband printer on the unit was broken
ponent of what should be a far more comprehensive Why? Healthcare system purchased an unreliable printer
problem-solving process.18 And Serrat clarifies that Why? Poor process for evaluating and purchasing ‘non-
users should not feel constrained by the arbitrary clinical’ equipment
number in the tool’s title: more, or fewer, than five Why? Equipment deemed ‘non-clinical’ is not seen as
‘whys’ may be required.19 safety-critical
But the real problem with ‘5 whys’ is not how it is This version skips the step of asking why the wrist-
used in RCA, but rather that it so grossly band was not checked and moves directly to asking
Figure 1 A causal event tree (adapted from ref. 21). ID, identification; IT, information technology.
why it was not there. It also sticks to the high-level Why? Not enough nurses to deal with the influx of
issue of the printer being broken, without delving into patients
the details of the label jam. ‘Skipping’ these questions Why? Nurses affected by an outbreak of norovirus
allows the analysis to go deeper because it leaves more Why? Poor adherence to time-consuming infection
‘whys’ available. This example also maintains a focus control interventions
on issues within the organisation, rather than the Why? A culture of ‘just get the job done’
design of the printer. This would lead to very differ- There are many ‘correct’ ways a team might use ‘5
ent solutions. whys’ to assess even this one incident. And it is
But because this approach skips past the question of unlikely that any two teams would independently
why the wristband was not checked, it closes the door arrive at exactly the same results. This subjectivity is
to questions about other reasons why it was not critically important because ‘5 whys’ focuses on only
checked. In figure 1, this would include the lack of a one root cause at the end of one causal pathway.
forcing function. But in another scenario, it might More sophisticated practice in the use of ‘5 whys’
include a desire to avoid waking the patient;27 an might produce two causal pathways, focusing on the
unreadable wristband (eg, smudged, crinkled or main service failures uncovered, rather than the event
occluded);28 the lack of a label on the medication;29 itself (ie, a set of ‘5 whys’ for ‘wristband not checked’
confusion caused by multiple wristbands;30 lack of and another for ‘verbal identification failure’). But
trust in the wristband data due to frequent errors31 or this is not how use of the tool has generally been
any of a number of other causes.28–31 taught in the healthcare industry.1 3 32 And even this
Users could also go down an entirely different unusually thorough approach would identify only 2 of
causal pathway. An equally reasonable ‘5 whys’ for the 30 causal pathways shown in the tree diagram.
this incident could look like this:
Incident: Wrong patient medication error A single root cause
Why? Patients with similar names in the same room Forcing users down a single causal pathway should be
Why? Not feasible to try ‘juggling beds’ disqualifying by itself. But ‘5 whys’ narrows the scope
for improvement even further by insisting that risk And, in contrast to that powerful-but-difficult lever
control efforts must focus on a single root cause for for shifting outcomes, sometimes more distal causes
each causal pathway. In the first healthcare example represent ‘low-hanging fruit’ that can be addressed
above, for instance, the root cause would be ‘poor while a more proximate solution is in the works. In
product design’, and this would serve as the sole figure 1, educating patients about why clinicians will
target for improvement efforts. be constantly asking them to identify themselves
But accidents are seldom the result of a single root would be far from foolproof. But it would be fast,
cause.33 So focusing exclusively on one (or even a cheap and easy. And it might reduce an important
few) arbitrarily determined ‘root causes’ is not a reli- barrier to best practice in verbal identification.
able method for driving improvement—especially in a Appropriate targets for intervention may occur any-
system as complex as healthcare. As Wieman and where along the causal continuum and on any causal
Wieman wrote: “Unfortunately … restricting the pathway. And efforts to improve safety and quality
number of variables [considered] in a complex system will often require more than one intervention target-
only results in an increased potential for errors of ing more than one underlying hazard. It is useful to
omission” (ref. 34, p. 117). identify all the key hazards that gave rise to an inci-
How much might be omitted when using ‘5 whys’? dent and ensure that each of these is either addressed
The tree diagram for our example uncovers more than or intentionally accepted.35 (See, for instance, the
75 whys (causes and contributing factors), each of Options Evaluation Matrix.)36 But the use of ‘5 whys’
which is a potential target for action to reduce the makes this impossible.
risk of a recurrence. The ‘5 whys’ approach would
identify only one (or possibly two) root cause as CONSIDERING THE VIRTUES OF ‘5 WHYS’
target for action. At best, this represents <3% of the What, then, of the virtues of ‘5 whys?’ Are the issues
opportunities for improvement identified using the above redeemed by the tool’s simplicity and pedigree?
tree diagram.
Simplicity
Targeting only the most distal cause Simplicity is a complicated virtue when it comes to
Not only are users of ‘5 whys’ limited to one root the frameworks, tools and techniques of QI. For
cause per causal pathway, but they are also limited to instance, the conceptual simplicity of the
selecting only the most distal cause (conventionally, Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) framework is one of its
the fifth ‘why’). There is, however, no logical reason main selling points, but it may also lead organisations
to assume that this is always the most effective or to underestimate the messy work involved in applying
most efficient target for intervention. PDSA to real-world problems.37
Actually, if it were possible to magically place a But, as this paper has shown, the ‘5 whys’ approach
100% effective risk control at any one point on the has clearly overshot the mark: it is not simple, but
tree diagram, it would be best used on a proximate simplistic. It is, as Leveson describes, “… perhaps the
cause. For instance, making it impossible to administer most simplistic [accident analysis technique] and …
medication without checking the wristband would leads to the least amount of learning from events”.13
render all the more distal causes moot for the purpose Charles Vincent famously called for RCA to serve
of preventing a recurrence. as “a window on the system”.38 If that is the goal,
And, while 100% effective risk controls are seldom then ‘5 whys’ is doomed to fail. It purposely discards
available, an action plan that includes a proven26 (if the vast majority of what might be learned about the
certainly imperfect)29 intervention like a well-designed system being interrogated.
bar-code reader with a forcing function for patient The reality of most healthcare processes and systems
identification (ID) is more likely to prevent another is that we face classic design problems: problems that
serious ‘wrong patient’ medication error than switch- are highly contextualised and often “ill-defined, ill-
ing to a well-designed printer. structured, or ‘wicked’”39 (ref. 40, p. 224). A ‘5 whys’
This is not to suggest that more distal causes are not analysis ignores this. Most of the causal pathways that
appropriate targets for improvement efforts. In the led to an event are amputated from the start, and con-
example presented in figure 1, for instance, there is sideration of those that remain is limited to a single
clearly a profound need to change the culture from root cause.
one that is task-oriented and sometimes hostile to one This creates a toy problem i in which it is assumed
that is outcomes-oriented and psychologically safe. that simple optimisation of one, or at most a handful
The pervasive impact of such a culture change would of variables will lead to improvement, without any
be far more important than merely reducing the risk
that this particular incident might recur; it would i
A toy problem is: “A deliberately oversimplified case of a
influence almost every quality and safety issue in the challenging problem used to investigate, prototype, or test
organisation. algorithms for a real problem. Sometimes used pejoratively”.62
need to consider the rest of the system. This flies in Some of these have been explored above (eg, focusing
the face of everything we know about solving pro- on a single root cause or a small handful of them; and
blems in complex adaptive systems like healthcare.41 poor quality investigations), but it also raises a
number of other issues, such as misuse of the RCA
Pedigree process to pursue (or avoid) other agendas; failure to
The positive reputation enjoyed by TPS/Lean provides support feedback loops and double-loop learning; a
an aura of credibility for ‘5 whys’. But how applicable focus on individual and isolated incidents; a confused
is this to the question at hand? The reputation of TPS/ approach to blame; the ‘problem of many hands’ (see
Lean was built in a very different context. And the use also ref. 63) and the shortfalls of a retrospective
of ‘5 whys’ as an RCA tool is by no means the same approach.
thing as the use of the full TPS/Lean methodology. The authors also note that RCA often results in
Healthcare organisations are not automobile factor- poorly designed and/or poorly implemented risk con-
ies. And while there is much to be learned from the trols.33 While the goal of learning from incidents is to
automotive industry and other high-reliability organi- reduce risk and prevent future harm, the actual tools
sations (HROs), healthcare delivery will never be truly and techniques of current practice focus exclusively
comparable to automobile manufacturing. Despite on diagnosing problems; they provide no direct
efforts in the healthcare industry to adopt the tenets support for prescribing and managing treatments for
of HROs,42 43 current practice provides recom- the organisational pathologies they uncover.64 65
mended care only about 70% of the time.44 And the Some organisations have adopted the PDSA
percentage of hospital patients who experience an approach to continuous improvement of their risk
adverse event may be as high as 25–33%.45–50 control action plans.37 66 But this is a high-level
HROs commonly aim for a reliability rate of ‘six framework, akin to the scientific method. And like the
sigma’ (three errors per million opportunities). By scientific method, it must be implemented through an
these measures, healthcare is struggling to move appropriate set of tools and techniques to produce
beyond two sigma (308 500 errors per million oppor- reliable results.37 Although a handful of such tools
tunities, or a 30.85% error rate).51 have been introduced in recent years,35 36 67–72 they
Reliability in the healthcare industry can improve, have not yet been adopted as the current standard of
and indeed it has (cf. ref. 52). But healthcare is far practice.
more complex34 53 than automobile manufacturing, Perhaps as a result, there is little evidence to suggest
and takes place amid processes and systems that are that current practice in RCA improves outcomes.65
woefully underdesigned in comparison to a modern These challenges do not mean that RCA is never
factory. Further, the safety and quality workforce in worthwhile; it certainly can be a source of important
healthcare is only beginning to move towards profes- learning73 and improvement.74 But it does mean that
sionalisation54 55 and often lacks formal training in we cannot afford to compound these problems through
engineering, human factors, ergonomics or similar the use of an RCA tool that is so deeply and fundamen-
domains. tally flawed. Other more systems-focused techniques,
As a result, approaches developed for solving pro- such as fishbone75 or lovebug diagrams,72 causal tree
blems in the automotive manufacturing context may diagrams,21 Causal Analysis based on Systems Theory
not be as effective in the healthcare arena. And, (CAST)76 or even prospective risk assessment
indeed, the evidence base for the use of Lean/TPS in approaches,77–81 should be considered instead.
healthcare is weak56–58 and increasingly negative.59 60
It is also important to differentiate between the use CONCLUSION
of ‘5 whys’ as a QI method and the use of Lean/TPS When used carefully, ‘5 whys’ may play a powerful
as a QI methodology. Though the two are sometimes role in the classroom. It can illustrate both the need
conflated in both the literature59 and practice,61 they for depth (as a positive example) and the need for
are by no means equivalent. And the use of ‘5 whys’ breadth (as a negative example) when analysing
in healthcare RCA is not typically part of a full-scale complex problems.
Lean management approach. As a tool for conducting RCAs, however, especially
If the use of ‘5 whys’ does not imply the adoption in the area of patient safety, the use of ‘5 whys’
of Lean, and if the evidence to date does not support should be abandoned. As the (apocryphal) quote
the effectiveness of Lean in healthcare in any case, goes: “For every complex problem, there is an answer
there is little reason to be swayed by the pedigree that is clear, simple and wrong”.82 When it comes to
argument. accident investigation, ‘5 whys’ is that answer.
Using ‘5 whys’ undermines an already weak RCA process Competing interests None declared.
A recent article by Peerally et al33 describes a number Provenance and peer review Commissioned; internally peer
of important weaknesses in healthcare RCA practice. reviewed.