Robert J. Latino
Reliability Center, Inc. is a leading Reliability Engineering firm specializing in the practice and education of Root Cause Analysis and FMEA. We teach people how to think through why ANY undesirable outcome occurs. Many are mislead to believe that certain RCA approaches are better in certain industries. Truth be known, RCA is not specific to any industry but common to the human being. It is the human thought process that will be relied upon to determine how and why it occurred.
Biography
Robert J. Latino is CEO of Reliability Center, Inc. (RCI). RCI is a Reliability engineering firm specializing in improving Equipment, Process and Human Reliability. Mr. Latino received his Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and Management from Virginia Commonwealth University.Mr. Latino is an author, educator and practitioner of Root Cause Analysis (RCA) and Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) with his clientele around the world. Mr. Latino works in organizations ranging from Healthcare to Continuous Process Manufacturing to Homeland Security.
Mr. Latino is also co-author of Root Cause Analysis Improving Performance for Bottom Line Results and contributing author of Error Reduction in Healthcare: A Systems Approach to Improving Patient Safety. Mr. Latino has been published in numerous trade magazines on the topic of RCA as well as a frequent speaker on the topic at conferences and trade shows.
Websites
Books
Articles
Is All RCA The Same?
Published: Aug 15, 2019 by Published by Reliability Center, Inc.
Authors: Robert J. Latino
Subjects:
Engineering - Industrial & Manufacturing
When RCA is done properly, it does take more time to conduct an effective analysis. However, we should not have to do it again, if we did it right the first time! Remember, “We NEVER seem to have the time and budget to do things right, but we ALWAYS seem to have the time and budget to do them again!”
Patient Safety: The Top Frustrations of RCA Facilitators & How It Prevents Them from Being Effective - White Paper Download
Published: Aug 14, 2019 by Published by Reliability Center, Inc.
Authors: Robert J. Latino
Subjects:
Healthcare
Being an effective RCA analyst is tough work in the healthcare (HC) industry. It is fraught with administrative, technical and political hurdles that continually erode our will to be effective. However, for those ‘driven’ analysts, they just rise to the challenge, because the end game is the patient’s safety and it's worth it!
Is There a Direct Correlation Between Reliability and Safety?
Published: Mar 06, 2019 by Presented at the 2019 SMRP Conference
Authors: Robert J. Latino
Subjects:
Engineering - Industrial & Manufacturing
I believe the Safety world has an inaccurate current day view of 'RCA' in general and therefore treats all RCA as a commodity equivalent to the limited capabilities of the 5-Whys (linear and identifies a single root cause). I believe how well we truly solve failures (losses resulting from deviations from an acceptable standard) has a direct impact on the safety of our workforce.
Preventing Patient Identification Errors
Published: Oct 04, 2018 by Patient Safety & Quality Magazine
Authors: Robert J. Latino
Subjects:
Healthcare
The author explains how patient identification errors are highly preventable with the right identification analyses, workflows, and safeguards in place. Deterrence requires instilling a culture—from the top down—that encourages and rewards proactive assessment of misidentification risk across the continuum of care. Here are three ways to diagnose the causes (and potential causes) of patient misidentification, and to prevent such errors so that a safety-focused culture can thrive.
Podcast: Living Reliability
Published: Sep 26, 2018 by Rob's Reliability Project
Authors: Interview with Bob Latino
Subjects:
Engineering - Industrial & Manufacturing
On this week’s episode of Rob’s Reliability Project, I welcome Bob Latino back on to discuss why reliability is a way of life and the 14 principles of living reliability.
Pod Cast – Reliability – Maintenance and RCA
Published: Aug 28, 2018 by Rob's Reliability Project
Authors: Interview with Bob Latino
Subjects:
Engineering - Industrial & Manufacturing
Pod cast with Robert J. Latino (Bob) of Reliability Center Inc. This episode includes reliability maintenance, root cause analysis, when to use RCA and how to leverage RCA for chronic failures and more.
A Manufacturing Industry Outsider’s Journey into the Healthcare Culture
Published: Mar 06, 2018 by Wisconsin Society for Healthcare Risk Management
Authors: Robert J. Latino
Subjects:
Healthcare
In this paper I will seek to draw many parallels between the manufacturing, process and healthcare cultures, with an emphasis on dramatically increasing patient safety in the short-term. Keeping in mind the entire time my primary experience in healthcare has been as a patient!
What is the Correlation Between Root Cause Analysis and Swiss Cheese?
Published: Dec 19, 2016 by Published by Reliability Center, Inc.
Authors: Robert J. Latino
Subjects:
Engineering - Industrial & Manufacturing
The holes in the Swiss cheese represent vulnerabilities that our safety systems are subject to. Many of these vulnerabilities are identified through our risk assessments such as Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA). This is where we seek to quantify risk by assessing our potential failure modes in a system
Mistakes Were Made, But Not By Me….Facing the Mirror!
Published: Nov 21, 2016 by Published by Reliability Center, Inc.
Authors: Robert J. Latino
Subjects:
Engineering - Industrial & Manufacturing
No matter where we work, we will experience failures or ‘undesirable outcomes’ of some kind. As long as we work with other humans, this will indeed be the case. These failures may surface in the form of production delays, injuries, customer complaints, lost profits, etc. Let’s get away from labels and specific industries and focus on the anatomy of a ‘failure’. Where does a failure come from? Think about this no matter where you work and see if it applies.
In healthcare, is the human being an asset or liability?
Published: Jun 14, 2016 by JOURNAL OF HEALTHCARE RISK MANAGEMENT
Authors: Robert J. Latino
Subjects:
Healthcare
This article contrasts preventive and predictive technologies in industry to those in healthcare. For years, risk managers have been discussing the rationing of care. The human being is often referred to as an “asset” in our society. When preventive maintenance is routinely performed on a piece of equipment, the benefits are more reliable operations, increased productivity, and lower life cycle costs. If these same concepts are applied to humans, will we see the same benefits?
Videos
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Published: Aug 13, 2012
Medication Error case history performed in PROACT Root Cause Analysis software. Patient Death due to Medication Error and Missed Diagnosis of Anaphylactoid Reaction.
Published: Aug 13, 2012
RCA on a pharmacy that made a wrong prescription based on a recorded message from the doctor's office. See how this uncovers the systemic flaws of prescription filling in VA.
Published: Aug 13, 2012
The 5 Whys and Other Root Cause Analysis Methods. See how Reliability Center's RCA Web application can accommodate most any method of RCA. Go FURTHER and drill down to the system root causes and find ALL the root causes.