In incident reporting, what is the primary purpose of root cause analysis?

• A. To assign blame to staff.
• B. To collect patient feedback.
• C. To identify underlying system factors that contributed to an error so corrective actions prevent recurrence.
• D. To measure hospital revenue impact.

Answer: (C)

Root cause analysis in incident reporting focuses on uncovering the underlying system factors—such as policies, workflows, communication, equipment, staffing, and training—that allowed an error to occur. The goal is to design and implement corrective actions that address those system weaknesses so the same error is unlikely to recur, thereby improving patient safety across the care process. It isn’t about assigning blame to individuals, which can discourage reporting and learning. It also isn’t primarily about gathering patient feedback or measuring financial impact; those elements may be part of broader quality efforts, but RCA targets prevention of recurrence by fixing the contributing system factors.