Risk assessment in critical care medicine: a tool to assess patient safety

In many industries and areas, risk assessment has shown to be a useful decision-making tool, to compare options and study the need for risk-reducing measures. In health care, risk assessment is on relatively new ground, and in this paper, we address its use in this area, with emphasis on patient safety. We present a new approach to such assessments for this type of application, using a broad risk perspective where risk is defined as the two-dimensional combination of (1) events, consequences and (2) associated uncertainties. The approach acknowledges that risk is more than historical-based probabilities. It is demonstrated using a case from training of health professionals and the use of simulation in the training of physicians performing advanced airway procedures for critically ill patients.