The Bow Tie Diagram is used in risk evaluation. It gives a one-page visual roadmap of causes, controls, impacts, and preparedness steps in place to minimize the impacts of high-risk situations. This tool, shaped like a bow tie, gives a summary of plausible scenarios that could exist around a certain risk and identifies possible prevention and mitigation to minimize risk. Developed by Public Health Foundation (PHF) Senior Quality Advisor Jack Moran and Performance Improvement Expert Sonja Armbruster, the Bow Tie Diagram helps to uncover causal relationships in high-risk and high-impact scenarios, which could cause a major disruption to an organization. The Bow Tie Diagram is one of many supplements to the 2012 Public Health Quality Improvement Encyclopedia.
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About the Public Health Quality Improvement EncyclopediaThe
Public Health Quality Improvement Encyclopedia is a practical guide to using 75 tools for quality improvement (QI) practitioners in public health organizations. The book was distributed to all state and local health departments and may be purchased through
PHF's Online Store.
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This tool was supported by Cooperative Agreement 5 U38 OT 000211-03, funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the Department of Health and Human Services.