scope:

This guideline is intended for use by individuals in any clinical service as an internal program for detecting, documenting, investigating, analyzing, correcting, and following up on events that do not conform to the service's established policies, processes, and procedures.

This guideline is intended to supplement, but not replace, an organization's established risk management or patient safety program.

The guidance provided herein is perhaps best used within an individual clinical service; however, the concepts may be expanded to function in a larger scope, if needed.

In this guideline, the medical laboratory is used for providing examples and appendixes.