Morbidity and mortality (M&M) meetings, also called clinical review meetings, give clinical teams a regular forum to review patient care and act on what they learn. They support quality improvement, education, and clinical role modelling.
Six guiding principles
The Conducting Clinical Reviews and M&M Meetings Guidelines (PDF 1.5 MB) draw on human factors science to support strong learning and system improvement. They set out six guiding principles, with minimum and gold-standard requirements for each.
- Safe place for learning: Discussions are blame-free, with a focus on education.
- Multidisciplinary: Active participation across disciplines.
- Meeting framework: A systematic agenda process, supported by clinical analytics.
- Comprehensive discussions: Generate actionable learning and system improvement.
- Lessons learned: Documented and shared to drive action.
- Governance: Clear pathways for reporting recommendations.
Guideline appendices
- Appendix A: Example terms of reference (PDF 67.2 KB)
- Appendix B: Example meeting report (PDF 114.8 KB)
- Appendix C: Example quarterly summary report (PDF 89.5 KB)
- Appendix D: Cognitive autopsy guideline (PDF 84.0 KB)
Training
Two resources support local M&M meeting practice:
The Quality Improvement Data Systems (QIDS) platform includes a morbidity and mortality module to support local use.
My Health Learning hosts two courses under the Morbidity and Mortality Meetings learning path (path code 485627051):
- M&M meetings: preparation and planning (course code 130323).
- M&M meetings: facilitation and psychological safety (course code 476703002).
Resources
- Guiding principles (PDF 83.8 KB)
- Cue card for presenters (PDF 320.2 KB)
- Checklist for chairs (PDF 110.4 KB)
- Paediatric meeting report template (DOC 35.9 KB)
- Paediatric meeting report template (PDF 153.5 KB)
Webinars
- Guiding principles for effective M&M meetings: recording (video) and slides (PDF 3.6 MB)
- Safety intelligence for M&M meetings: recording (video) and slides (PDF 2.9 MB)