Risk Management Assessment Requirements
Week 2 Assignment: Risk Management Assessment
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Week 1 Assignment: Elements of a Risk Management Program
Week 4 Assignment: Organizational Risk Management Interview
Instructions:
This assignment builds on the review of risk management in the “Elements of a Risk Management Program” assignment.
In a 1,250-1,500-word paper, discuss techniques for maintaining a successful risk management program by doing the following:
- Refer to chapter 7, “Techniques for Managing Safety,” in Risk Management in Healthcare Institutions: Limiting Liability and Enhancing Care.
- Identify two major categories of risk in your health care organization.
- Explain how you would apply the three elements of risk management that you selected in the “Elements of a Risk Management Program” assignment.
Prepare this assignment according to the APA guidelines found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center. An abstract is not required.
This assignment uses a grading rubric. Instructors will be using the rubric to grade the assignment; therefore, students should review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the assignment criteria and expectations for successful completion of the assignment.
You are required to submit this assignment to Turnitin. Refer to the directions in the Student Success Center. Only Word documents can be submitted to Turnitin.
Solution
Risk Management Assessment
Introduction
The implementation of an efficient risk management program is critical to the improvement of a healthcare system’s proficiency and profitability, and most importantly, for the promotion of the health and wellbeing of the staff and patients. The initial step includes the development of the program, which starts with the identification and analysis of the risk to develop efficient risk treatment, evaluation, and avoidance measures. The risk managers and the entire institution must cover areas such as patient safety, infection control, fire prevention, management of medical equipment and information, hazardous wastes and materials and disaster preparedness among others. Covering these areas ensures that the program developed is comprehensive enough to tackle the risks and ensure success in their management. This essay discusses the different techniques essential for the maintenance of a successful risk management program in a health institution. It covers clinical and the safety and security categories of risk in healthcare organizations and explains the application of the elements of risk management in handling the risks.
Categories of Risk in Healthcare Organizations
There are numerous categories of risk in healthcare organizations. However, this study focuses on the safety/security and clinical risk management in a healthcare institution. The two types utilize the same techniques and concentrate on enhancing the quality of care and improving institutional and individual efficacy. The techniques used for the management of safety and security risk and clinical risk include the estimation of risk assessment, the application of failure modes and the effects analysis (FMEA), technological redundancy, the application of the root-cause analysis (RCA), and the crew resource management (CRM). The use of these techniques ensures success in the management of risks that underlie within the safety and security risk and, which threaten the clinical wellbeing of the patient (Kavaler & Alexander, 2014). The alleviation of the risks ensures the protection of the welfare of patients and staff, the protection of their property, and the assurance of their safety while giving or receiving health care services. Additionally, the management of safety and security prevents the institution from incurring penalties, from program disaccreditation, and management turnover.
As techniques for maintaining a successful safety and security risk management, the FMEA and the RCA play a significant role in the enhancement of the effectiveness and success of a risk management program. According to Kavaler and Alexander (2014), the FMEA is a structured method for the examination of systems, processes, medical equipment to determine and reduce the risk of failure. The technique is implemented by a team of experts that studies the process steps or the components of equipment, evaluates the defects, and assigns a risk score. Additionally, the team quantifies the risk by multiplication with the ordinal ratings and focuses on redesigning the interaction of the steps or components to minimize the weakness and the possibility of occurrence of a failure. The RCA technique complements the FMEA in that it is used after the occurrence of an event to prevent recurrence. It is a system-based analytic technique that analyses flaws following rigorously prescribed formats (Spiegel & Kavaler, 2003). The RCA team explains the event, its causes, and the most proximate factors in all the processes involved. Despite preventing the recurrence of failures, it also discovers opportunities for improvement within the processes (Kavaler & Alexander, 2014). Therefore, it plays an essential role towards the success of the risk management program.
Other techniques for effective safety/security and clinical risk management in health care institutions include technological redundancy, the red rules, and CRM. Technological redundancy includes aspects such as the provision of an emergency electrical power system that supports emergency lighting, life safety and critical care equipment, elevators, and elevators. The system comprises of a generator plant, automatic transfer switches, and circuitry for the distribution of emergency power. The system should integrate the highest level of redundancy to reduce the risk of equipment failure. On the other hand, the red rules are implemented for the regulation of hazardous biological, chemical, and radioactive materials. For effective management of safety risk, health care facilities should develop and maintain a plan for the management of hazardous materials. The CRM focuses on the promotion and reinforcement of the conscious, team behaviours of cooperation, sharing, and coordination to reduce human error in the provision of care services (Kavaler & Alexander, 2014). These techniques work together with the others to enhance effectiveness in the management of safety/security and clinical risk and thus promote quality care.
Moreover, the safety of patients and staff requires strong consideration. Healthcare institutions integrate high-tech solutions in the management of safety risk to ensure the protection of the wellbeing of staff and patients and individual and institutional property. Automated turnstiles actuated using proximity readers and card swipes and a manageable courtesy desk controls employee and visitor egress respectively. Additionally, perimeter controls, CCTV surveillance and secure lockers or safes are utilized to protect the institutional and personal property and discourage cases of harassment, employee theft, infant abduction, and workplace violence. Moreover, platforms for reporting different cases and effective response teams enhance the process of dealing with adverse occurrences (Kavaler & Alexander, 2014).
Applying the Elements of the Risk Management Program
The efficient application of the elements of risk management program in managing clinical risks and safety and security risks guarantees success. However, the application of the elements should be an integrated approach that incorporates the different techniques and expertise from the expert teams. For instance, the application of the risk identification process should integrate the FMEA and the RCA techniques of clinical, safety and security risk management. The FMEA involves the examination of health care processes, medical equipment, and systems to outline the possibility of occurrence of faults. The FMEA expert team should work together while integrating the CRM strategies to ensure cooperation, coordination, and the application of team behaviours to outline any weaknesses. The determination of a weakness equates to the identification of a risk. The risk, which can be clinical or safety/security, would then require a critical analysis to determine its possible impact on the processes of health care provision and the health and safety of the practitioners and patients.
After the identification of risk, the application of analytical techniques would ensure the accurate and reliable analysis of the risks. The process of analysis demands the use of efficient analysis techniques such as the FMEA and the RCA techniques. The FMEA technique is used in the quantification of the risk by multiplication with the ordinal ratings (Kavaler & Alexander, 2014). The RCA analyses the risk by analysing the weaknesses that pose the risk and evaluating the possibility of its occurrence and recurrence. Moreover, apart from the two analytic techniques, the expert team must consider risk financing, risk control, and risk avoidance to develop an articulate understanding of the risk and its impact (Carroll, 2013). I would apply these concepts alongside the different techniques using the expertise of the analysis team to develop guidelines for the treatment of the risks. The extensive analysis would pave a way for the development of effective treatment techniques.
The application of the element of treatment would require the integration of the analytic methods. While the FMEA technique analyses the risks before their occurrence, it also redesigns the interaction between the components, processes, and equipment to minimize or alleviate the risks. Additionally, the RCA technique explores the events, the causes, and impact and thus can be used for the development of strategies that prevent recurrence and improve the systems. All in all, the avoidance of the risk can be achieved by avoiding the use of equipment or the application of processes that reveal significantly high risk.
Conclusion
The
different categories of risk in the healthcare sector apply different
techniques to ensure the prevention of risk occurrence or recurrence. Prevention
of risks or control of their influence on the process of offering health care
services boosts institutional proficiency. Additionally, it enhances the quality
of care and promotes the health and wellbeing of patients and the staff. As
categories of risk, clinical and safety/security risk demand the application of
similar techniques for the management of the risk. The effectiveness of the implementation
of the techniques determines the success of the management of the risks and the
general success of the risk management program. Moreover, in dealing with the
two categories, the application of the elements of risk identification, risk
analysis, and risk treatment and avoidance is critical. The application of the elements
calls for different approaches. Efficiency in their application causes the
overall success of the program. This guarantees improved institutional efficiency,
promotes quality care and the societal livelihood.
References
Carroll, R. (2013). Risk Management Handbook for Health Care Organizations. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass – A Wiley Imprint. https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Risk+Management+Handbook+for+Health+Care+Organizations%2C+Student+Edition-p-9780470300176
Cole, S. A., Chaudhary, R., & Bang, D. A. (2014). Sustainable risk management for an evolving healthcare arena. Healthcare Financial Management 68 (6), 110-114. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24968634
Kavaler, F., & Alexander, R. S. (2014). Risk management in healthcare institutions : limiting liability and enhancing care (3rd Edition ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning. https://www.jblearning.com/catalog/productdetails/9781449645656
Kavaler, F., & Spiegel, A. D. (2003). Risk management in health care institutions (2nd Edition ed.). Sudbury, Massachussetts: Jones and Bartlett Publishers. https://www.amazon.com/Risk-Management-Health-Care-Institutions/dp/1449645658
