The Root Cause Analysis is a QI tool used to define the main cause of a problem and identify the actions necessary to permanently eliminate it. Fixing the main cause of the problem prevents continuously addressing minor symptoms of the problem. This article by
Grace Duffy,
Jack Moran, and
William Riley, all PHF
QI Experts, teaches how to use this tool and identifies which other QI tools can help improvement teams create solutions for the root cause of their problems.