Using the following criteria severity, recurrence, product issue status, and type of recovery the Risk Assessment Index provides an essential tool in the MERS-TM process for meeting the following goals:

• guiding the QA SysOp in determining/selecting the level of investigation for the individual event
  
  
• maximizing an organizations event management resources by targeting selected events for an expanded investigation
  
  
• providing an important outcome measure for the event reporting system, which is that risk index for all events should decrease over time