There are risks associated with the day-to-day operations of any health organization. Potential problems include anything from giving the wrong medication to cybersecurity concerns.
Healthcare risk management is discovering and responding to these potential or active issues. These processes can keep your organization compliant and help you provide better services.
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What Is Risk Management?
Many fields use risk management to help ensure the safety and security of their organizations, employees and clients. Healthcare risk management aims to identify threats to patients, staff, accreditation and reputation.
Risk management traditionally focuses on patient safety and liability, but many facilities are choosing to adopt more proactive strategies. Risk managers identify, assess and reduce threats as early as possible—sometimes before they arise.
Why Is Risk Management in Healthcare Important?
Risk management strategies allow you to respond to needs across your facility, from safety to regulatory compliance. Examples of how clinical risk management can help your group thrive include:
Enhanced care quality
Keeping patient data safe, secure and accessible across your organization makes it easier to provide better care. These checks and balances can also ensure you provide appropriate services.
Improved risk resilience
Proactive safeguards can help you identify and prevent threats before they negatively affect you.
Increased regulatory compliance
Your team can better handle complex healthcare regulations with risk management techniques.
Adopting comprehensive risk management strategies helps you proactively mitigate various types of threats.
Types of Risk in Healthcare
Healthcare risks can come in many forms, making a comprehensive management strategy critical. Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) is a popular method for analyzing threats, focusing on eight particular areas:
Clinical and patient safety
This sector refers to patient care in any setting. Some risks in this area include patient injury due to hazards, medication mistakes or surgical errors.
Human capital
The organization’s workforce can also face threats to their well-being. These could include injury, illness and workplace violence or harassment.
Operational
The systems that keep your organization running also face risks, such as data breaches, backup failures or human error.
Environmental- and infrastructure-based hazards
This category includes natural disasters, construction and other physical environmental dangers.
Financial
A healthcare facility’s financials are at risk of fraud, fines, increasing costs, unpaid bills or any other issue that can affect your “bottom line.”
Legal and regulatory
All organizations must follow local, federal and state regulations, such as HIPAA and OSHA requirements. Risk arises if your team fails to monitor and react to changing laws and regulations.
Strategic
These threats can relate to rules and laws, though this category also includes issues with your organization’s mission. For example, you may face increased risk if you do not update your technology or best practices.
Technological
Technological threats focus on the systems that store software and data, whether patient information or general operations.
These categories often overlap, meaning each one has no cut-and-dry explanation. However, understanding these factors can help you focus on pertinent areas for risk management.
Risk Management Strategies in Healthcare
Creating a process for identifying, managing and responding to threats is a proactive approach. While your specific strategy may vary according to your facility’s needs, here are some general guidelines:
Set goals
Consider what you want to accomplish with your risk management strategy. Your goals should center around ideas like reducing specific types of threats or liability.
Focus on training
Define new employee training protocols, ongoing education methods and reviews.
Understand reporting requirements
Create a system for responding to and reporting risks, including mandatory reporting guidelines.
Plan for patient and family concerns
Develop a plan for reacting to patients’ complaints, including responsibilities, timelines and required actions.
Create a communication plan
Determine what you should share and with whom, both when you discover an incident and during follow-up.
Develop a contingency plan
Create a contingency plan for worst-case scenarios like cyberattacks, disease outbreaks or active shooters.
Coordinate risk response and mitigation
You’ll also need to know how to respond to or mitigate threats, including immediate response actions, follow-up and remedies.
Your strategy may look different from others’ plans, but it is crucial to address these points throughout the creation process. Following the basics can help you cover all your bases before and during an incident.
How Continuing Medical Education (CME) Can Help With Risk Management in Primary Care
Staying current on technology advancements, best practices and changing rules is crucial to proper risk management. That’s where CME comes into play.
Whether you want to attend in-person or virtual sessions, CME helps you get the knowledge you need to make informed decisions.