Assignment task:
Write 6-8 pages analyzing a specific issue that occurred in a health care organization. Apply risk management best practices to it for the purpose of early risk identification and risk reduction or elimination in the future.
Introduction:
Health care organizations have always searched for ways to identify and reduce risks. An organization's ability to identify and analyze its risk exposure is a determining factor in the effectiveness of its risk management program (Hoarle, 2015). Early identification and analysis are essential.
Current health care risk management practices developed in the mid-1970s as a result of a surge in malpractice suits. These suits caused rapid increases in claims costs for the industry, which later resulted in increased insurance premiums. Today, health care delivery systems and organizations realize the value of risk management and have developed formalized programs (Hoarle, 2015). In addition, organizations have established mechanisms to review potential incidents of risk and safety concerns (Pelletier & Beaudin, 2018). While risk management programs are responsible for daily management and risk operations, all health care stakeholders are responsible for participating in activities that will reduce unnecessary risks and improve safety and quality (Hoarle, 2015).
References:
Hoarle, K. (2015). Risk management poised to grow as healthcare evolves. Biomedical Instrumentation & Technology, 49(6), 433-435.
Pelletier, L. R., & Beaudin, C. L. (2018). HQ solutions: Resource for the healthcare quality professional (4th ed.). Wolters Kluwer.
Preparation
To successfully complete this assessment, use the Risk Management Policy & Procedure Template to address the following:
- For part 2 of this assessment, you will conduct an in-depth analysis of the organizational risk you selected from the Vila Health: Patient Safety simulation.
- Review the Risk Management Policy & Procedure Template [DOC], which you will use to complete your assessment. This document is formatted and has space for completing all components of the assessment.
Instructions:
Part 1: Risk Management Policy and Procedure (3-4 pages)
As the new risk manager in your health care organization, your director has assigned you the responsibility of drafting the organization's risk management policy and procedure. This assessment stemmed from your director's perception that employees lacked knowledge and awareness of risk management's contribution to furthering the organization's safety and quality improvement efforts. Likewise, your director also saw evidence that departments within the organization were inconsistently applying risk management principles to their daily work practices.
The guidance you have received from your director about writing this policy and procedure is that it needs to include all of the following headings. It also needs to answer all of the questions underneath each heading:
1. Purpose Statement:
o How can a risk management program help this organization advance its strategic safety and quality goals?
2. Key Risk Management Terms:
o What is the definition for each of these risk management terms?
- Risk prevention.
- Risk reduction.
- Regulatory compliance.
- Patient safety.
- Adverse event.
- Near miss.
3. Risk Categories and Risk Identification Techniques:
o Discuss 3 of the 5 following health care risk categories, as well as their corresponding risk identification technique:
- Financial.
- Human capital.
- Clinical.
- Strategic.
- Legal/ethical.
- What risk management strategies will the organization use to identify potential organizational risks? Be sure your narrative identifies and describes such risk identification techniques as concurrent, retrospective, incident-reporting, and previous trends.
Note: These are only a few of the risk identification techniques to address in your policy and procedure. Be sure to include other examples you are aware of from your professional experience or from your readings.
o What are some specific examples of risks and their appropriate corresponding risk identification techniques? For example, coding errors are a type of financial risk. Retrospective auditing is the risk identification technique used to identify this risk type.
4. Risk Manager's Role in Program Implementation and Compliance:
o What is the risk manager's role in risk management program implementation and compliance?
o How can a risk manager impact the effective management of the organization's risk management program?
o What is one example from the literature that shows how the risk manager role can positively impact a health care organization's management of its risk management program?
Part 2: Application of Risk Management Principles to a Specific Incident (3-4 pages)
To further help employees and the organization at large see risk management's contribution to helping the organization achieve its safety and quality goals, your director has asked you to analyze and apply risk management principles to a recent incident that occurred in the organization. Your director has asked you to include all of the following headings in your analysis and to address all of the questions underneath each heading.
1. Risk Description: Provide an overview of the risk including a description of the risk, implications to patients, and risk management strategies.
o Which potential risk to your organization from the Vila Health: Patient Safety simulation are you analyzing? These include a patient identification error, a medication error, and a HIPAA/privacy violation.
2. Risk Implications: Propose evidence-based risk management strategies and techniques to identify and eliminate or reduce a particular risk.
o What are the risks to the patients, employees, and organization if this particular risk is not addressed? In other words, what could happen if the organization chooses to do nothing?
3. Risk Reduction/Elimination: Propose evidence-based risk management best practices or strategies to identify and eliminate or reduce a particular risk.
o What evidence-based risk management best practices or strategies could the organization employ to eliminate or reduce the risk in the future? For example, if you plan to identify the risk by analyzing incident report data, would you conduct a drill down to determine what is causing the risk? What other best practices might you employ? Consult your suggested resources for guidance on best practices for eliminating and reducing risk.
o What steps would you take to implement your plan to eliminate or reduce your selected risk?
4. Importance of a Risk Management Program: Explain the importance of a risk management program to health care organizations.
o Why is a risk management program important to an organization?
o What are some important elements of a risk management program?
o What is the organizational impact of not having a risk management program?