There are many terms associated with significant events and they can all sound quite confusing – e.g., patient safety incident, near miss, never event, serious incident, significant event analysis (SEA), root cause analysis (RCA), learning event analysis (LEA), serious untoward incident (SUI), critical incident, and more.

Just to add further confusion, primary and secondary care organisations often use different terms to describe a ‘significant event’. But why should this matter? Well, the CQC will expect to see evidence, as stated in CQC GP mythbuster 3: Significant event analysis: “On inspection, we look for the impact on learning that has resulted from the SEA”. Furthermore, SEAs are part of the GP appraisal process.

If your organisation is aiming for ‘good’, you’ll need to be able to demonstrate that lessons have been learned and improvements made when things go wrong. Learning from SEAs must involve the whole team and should become embedded in everyday practice.

The CQC will expect to see that all members of staff are aware of, and able to prioritise, a significant event; that there’s evidence of information gathering (including factual information on the event); that a facilitated team-based meeting has occurred to discuss, investigate and analyse the event; that changes as a result of the SEA have been agreed, implemented and monitored; that written records are retained in report format; and, finally, that the report is shared and reviewed by all of the team.

What about the LFPSE service; are you familiar with that? That’s the ‘Learn from patient safety events’ (LFPSE) service which is replacing the National Reporting and Learning System (NRLS); it’s an online platform used to record patient safety events.

So, there’s much to do, but where to start? There seem to be a plethora of TLAs to understand (three-letter abbreviations), definitions to decipher, and central online systems to conquer!

Fear not, help is at hand. We’ve produced a short eLearning course, available through Practice Index Learning and accessible on the HUB, which explains what a significant event is, its various definitions, why you need to complete significant event analysis, how to carry out root cause analysis, the benefit of audit, SEA reporting tools, and much more.

Don’t dwell on deciphering definitions, or toil over TLAs, or ruminate on what to report, this short course will help you to understand what you need to do. Soon you’ll be able to show the CQC how your organisation effectively records SEs and evidences learning.

For an easier way to ensure you’re CQC compliant, our new Compliance Package includes both Safety Alerts Manager, and Significant Alerts Manager!