How will the Campaign categorize different types of harm, if at all?
In IHI’s work on medical harm, we have found it useful to categorize harm by severity using a modification of the index of the National Coordinating Council for Medication Error Reporting and Prevention (NCC MERP). The NCC MERP index is actually a categorization of medical error, with categories A through D covering errors that do not result in harm, and categories E through I covering errors that result in harm of escalating severity. One modification of the original NCC MERP scale for our use is the removal of error from any category definitions, resulting in a new scale that begins at category E and that makes no statement about or requirement of error. A second modification is to apply the index to all types of medical harm, rather than only medical harm associated with medication treatment (the original index is limited to only medication errors). Here is a list of the NCC MERP classifications of harm between category E and category I: Category E: Temporary harm to the patient tha
