The first certified Root Cause Analyst in Qatar, Dr Moza al-Ishaq, is using her expertise to train local and regional healthcare professionals in the area of risk management to enhance patient safety within a hospital environment.  
“Root Cause Analysis (RCA) is an innovative quality improvement approach that involves the investigation of the ‘root cause’ of an incident or error in order to develop the most effective solutions and minimise potential risks for patients,” explained the executive director of the Corporate Quality and Patient Safety Programme at Hamad Medical Corporation.
This extensive quality improvement process looks at how a particular problem occurs so preventive strategies can then be developed to prevent it from reoccurring.
“Having this sophisticated procedure as one of our key improvement approaches has definitely contributed to a stronger culture of safety within our facilities,” she said.
Dr. al-Ishaq has pioneered several of HMC’s risk management initiatives and staff training programmes in addition to developing the RCA approach.
These include the Risk Assessment and Risk Register, the Patient Safety Training Programme, and the HMC Quality Coaching Programme that focus on incorporating best practices to aid the delivery of the safest, most effective and most compassionate care to patients.
With the support of multi-disciplinary teams from HMC’s Risk Management Department and many medical teams, Dr al-Ishaq has led numerous quality improvement workshops for hundreds of staff members across HMC to encourage staff to be proactive in patient safety.
“We are dedicated to developing leaders at every level of the organisation through ongoing training on the core values of integrity, collaboration, and innovation. With this approach, each member of staff understands his or her contribution to improving each and every one of our patients’ healthcare experience,” she said.
Recent improvements also include the implementation of a highly advanced, state-of-the-art incident reporting system. Dr al-Ishaq took the lead on this significant project which marked a tremendous improvement since 2011, involving a shift from a paper-based to a web-based system.
The first Qatari to graduate from the Partners Healthcare International Fellowship and also the first Qatari to become an Improvement Adviser under a programme jointly offered by HMC and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, Dr al-Ishaq currently supervises a number of quality improvement projects and is an ardent advocate for patient safety.
She is involved in research work that focuses on care delivery systems, the implementation of system change, and clinical transformation in healthcare and improvement in the quality of patient care.