Assessment Description
The purpose of this assignment is to gain real-world insight into how risk management programs operate within health care organizations.
Select a local health care organization where you can conduct an interview with an employee who is involved in risk management processes. This organization can be your current employer or a different health care facility in your community. Acute care, urgent care, large multiâ€provider private medical clinics, assisted living facilities, and community/public health clinical facilities are all ideal options to complete the requirements of this assignment. Select an individual who can provide sufficient information regarding how their organization manages risk within its facility to answer the questions below.
In your interview, address the following:
Risk management strategies used in the organization\’s risk control program, along with specific examples.
How the facility\’s educational risk management program addresses key professional, legal, and ethical issues, such as prevention of negligence, malpractice litigation, and vicarious liability.
Policies the facility has implemented that address how to manage emergency triage in highâ€risk areas of health care service delivery (e.g., narcotics inventories, declared pregnancy policies, blood-borne disease sector, etc.).
Challenges the organization faces in managing and controlling high-risk health care (e.g., infectious diseases, nuclear medicine, abortion, class 4 narcotics/opioids, etc.).
Strategies the facility utilizes to monitor, evaluate, and maintain compliance within its risk management program.
After conducting the interview, compose a 750â€1,000 word summary analysis of the interview that includes the questions above, in conjunction with the interviewee\’s responses. In addition, include the following elements in your response:
An assessment of the organization\’s risk management program, including how it attends to high-risk health care and legal concerns.
Action steps you would take to improve one area of the organization\’s risk management program, along with your rationale for doing so.
Cite appropriate references as needed to support your statements and rationale.
Prepare this assignment according to the guidelines found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center. An abstract is not required.
This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.
You are required to submit this assignment to LopesWrite. A link to the LopesWrite technical support articles is located in Class Resources if you need assistance.
Organizational Risk Management Interview
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Organizational Risk Management Interview
Introduction
Risk management is a crucial element of patient care in all healthcare organizations. Every health care provider aims to provide quality health care, minimize risks, and ensure positive patient outcomes (NEJM Catalyst, 2018). The selected organization is a community (acute care) hospital that provides various medical services. The health care organization takes serious risk management measures to ensure the safety of all its customers (NEJM Catalyst, 2018). The purpose of this paper is to provide a summary of an interview with the organization’s risk manager regarding how risk management is undertaken within the organization.
The first question was about different risk management strategies used within the organization. The respondent stated that hand washing and hygiene are one of the basic risk management strategies used within the organization (Pozgar, 2019). Furthermore, the organization promotes environmental cleanliness and hygiene to prevent environmental associated risks such as falls and infections. The health career facility employed a microbiologist, risk manager, and infection control specialist who work together alongside other healthcare professionals to ensure patient safety (Liu, 2019). Patient education and staff training regarding risk management is another important strategy that the organization has put in place to enhance the safety of everyone.
The second question asked how the educational risk management program addressed professional, ethical, and legal issues such as malpractice litigation, negligence, and various liability. Educational risk management programs are expected to acknowledge these important professional issues (Pozgar, 2019). One important way the organizational program addresses these issues is to emphasize the importance of being compliant with the professional code of conduct. Also, the program focuses on the prevention of common medical errors and adverse events. The programs outline standard operation procedures to prevent risks, adverse events, and malpractice litigations (Liu, 2019). Healthcare providers are also enlightened about possible consequences in situations related to malpractice, negligence, and other ethical and legal issues.
The third question was about policies that the organization has established to manage emergency triage in high-risk areas of health care delivery. The response showed that the health care facility is compliant with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) guidelines to deal with various situations (Pozgar, 2019). The HIPAA provides privacy guidelines to be followed during an emergency. Furthermore, the EMTALA requires the organization to attend to any person reporting to the emergency department regardless of their health insurance status or ability to pay hospital bills.
The risk manager was asked about the challenges the organization faces in managing and controlling high-risk health care. One of the challenges includes non-compliance to hand washing and hygiene regulations among health care providers (Liu, 2019). The second challenge is that the organization admits a high number of elderly people annually. This category of patients is prone to infections and falls, which are two major threats to patient safety. The hospital has to spend and apply extra effort to keep the older patients safe. Polypharmacy is a major challenge, especially among elder patients who have multiple health conditions (Blokdyk, 2021). These issues are threats to patient safety in the organization.
The facility uses various strategies to monitor, evaluate, and maintain compliance within its risk management program. First, the organization hired infection control specialists, and a risk manager to ensure the risk management measures are well incorporated into the organizational culture and that health care providers are compliant (Pozgar, 2019). The organization has policies that outline consequences a healthcare professional may face for incompliance with the risk management guidelines. Additionally, the organization hires external specialists to review the risk management program or plan annually (Blokdyk, 2021). This ensures that the plan is up to date and remains compliant with medical standards of practice.
The organization has a comprehensive and effective risk management plan. The strategies outlined in the risk management plan can prevent various forms of risks in the care setting (Liu, 2019). One strength of this risk management plan is that it complies with policies established to promote safety in the country. However, risk management does not include clinical medication reviews to prevent polypharmacy (Pozgar, 2019). Also, the aspect of family involvement in the risk management plan was omitted.
To improve one area of the risk management program, it would be important to inform the organization and other relevant stakeholders. The objective of making the changes must be communicated. A good plan of the changes made must be designed (Liu, 2019). The changes are implemented and evaluated. The results are then shared with relevant stakeholders. The change is eventually incorporated into the organizational culture.
Conclusion
Risk management is an important aspect of health care. This paper presented a summary of the interview with the hospital risk manager. The health care organization has good measures for preventing various forms of risks. However, risk management does not include clinical medication reviews to prevent polypharmacy. Also, the aspect of family involvement in the risk management plan was omitted. Proper steps can be taken to improve these areas of the risk management program.
References
Blokdyk, G. (2021). Risk management and healthcare policy a complete guide. 5starcooks.
Liu, H. C. (2019). Healthcare risk management from a proactive perspective. In Improved FMEA methods for proactive healthcare risk analysis (pp. 3-13). Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-6366-5_1
NEJM Catalyst. (2018). What Is Risk Management in Healthcare? https://catalyst.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/CAT.18.0197
Pozgar, G. (2019). Legal and ethical issues for health professionals. Jones & Bartlett Learning.