What is Risk Management in Healthcare?

Healthcare risk management is a process that looks into patient safety and how to reduce the risks that could affect a healthcare organization. While safety and risk management in healthcare look into factors such as speed of service, the accuracy of care, and the efficiency of healthcare practices and processes, it is primarily used to protect the organization’s bottom line, income and revenue included.

When risks aren’t appropriately managed, your reputation as a healthcare provider takes a hit.

Getting To Know Risk Management in Healthcare

Risk management in healthcare goes beyond patient safety. A risk management plan also considers provider quality management, compliance issues, insurance and claims management, and more. The goal of risk management strategies is to improve the quality of patient care, create consistency, streamline processes to become more efficient, and generally help reduce the potential for serious legal or commercial risks.

What is the role of risk management in healthcare?

Risk management affects several parts of healthcare organizations, including operations, financial margins, and human resources. Risk managers working within a healthcare organization are there to identify the risks that are present, figure out how to handle them, and take steps to mitigate them to avoid incidents.

Risk Management and the NHS

A risk, as defined by the National Health Service (NHS) in England, is an event or circumstance that could have an impact on an organization’s objectives if it occurred. Risk management includes actions to improve and protect patient safety, ensure medical providers can offer valuable services to the communities they serve, and reduce the risk of harm or damage. Additionally, risk management can help build credibility and drive organizational learning.

Some risks that a risk management plan will address include:

Incorrect Diagnosis

An incorrect diagnosis could lead to inappropriate treatment or a delay in treatment. Patients who are victims of an incorrect diagnosis could have the standing to sue, which could harm the organization.

Medication Errors

Medication errors include instances of prescribing the wrong medications, the wrong dosages of medications, or overprescribing. Medication errors are among the most common medical errors and lead to over 1.5 million people suffering injuries each year.

Slow Response Times

When a patient’s results come back, acting on them is the key to quick treatment. To manage risk, providers should work on test results within a standardized turnaround, ensuring patients receive the results appropriately.

Poor Safeguarding Policies

Insufficient safeguarding policies can lead to vulnerable people, such as the elderly or ill patients, being put at risk. In the risk management process, addressing statutory requirements, regulations, gaps, and weaknesses is essential to protect these people.

Incidents Related to Poor Communication

Poor communication can lead to incidents that cause harm to individuals or the organization. Communication errors, such as failing to call a patient about test results, may lead to serious harm.

11 Common Examples of Risks in Healthcare

To manage risks effectively, it’s important to understand what those risks are and what they could look like in your healthcare organization’s settings. Common examples of risks in the healthcare industry include the following:

Home Health Agencies

Home health agencies have several significant patient risks to keep in mind. For patient safety, as well as a better patient experience, they should be prepared to deal with the following:

Burns

Burns could include anything ranging from sunburns caused by allowing patients to remain in outdoor courtyards or spaces to burns from hot beverages, electrical outlets, or medical devices.

Choking

In particular, the elderly often struggle with chewing and swallowing. Identifying choke risks, such as large food items, can help reduce the likelihood of an incident.

Malnutrition

Malnutrition is a risk in home health care because many patients cannot eat well or are at risk of malnutrition due to an illness or behavioral concerns.

Dehydration

Dehydration can be a sign of elderly abuse or neglect, but it can also be a natural result of a patient who doesn’t want to (or cannot) drink enough fluids. Identifying patients at risk of dehydration allows providers to step in with solutions, such as IV hydration.

Elder care

Elder care facilities have unique challenges among their patient population. Some of them include:

Pressure Ulcers

Pressure ulcers, also known as bedsores, occur when the skin and tissues are pressed against a surface for an extended period of time. These affect up to one in 10 nursing home residents and may be a sign of elder abuse leading to malpractice lawsuits.

Elopement

Elopement occurs when a patient or resident of a nursing home or other medical facility wanders away from the property unexpectedly. Approximately one in three elopements result in death, requiring facilities to manage risk through alarm systems and other processes to avoid serious harm coming to their patients.

Falls

Falls can occur if fall-risk patients try to walk alone, get out of bed, or otherwise move without support. Fall monitors and alarm systems can help staff members identify when patients are trying to get up or when they have gotten up, and they’re standard as a risk management strategy.

Outpatient Care Centers

Outpatient care centers work with patients with non-emergency needs. Sometimes, their needs are urgent, however, and they will require appropriate treatment. Some risks outpatient care centers need to be aware of include:

Infections Caused By Failing To Correctly Disinfect Equipment From Invasive Procedures

In outpatient care centers, patients may have surgery, be given injections, receive intravenous solutions (IVs), and more. Facilities must properly disinfect items that are used more than once and discard other items in appropriate containers, such as biohazard waste containers, to mitigate the risk of infections and malpractice claims.

Handoff Communications From Clinicians to Patients and Their Families

Another risk in outpatient facilities is a lack of communication through the inappropriate handoff of instructions from clinicians to patients or their families. Through a risk management program, facilities should come up with reasonable methods of passing along communications to ensure different types of risk, such as failing to provide instructions on stopping medications or when to call the office, aren’t missed.

Practitioners

Practitioners in family practices and other medical facilities have many risks to watch out for, two of which include:

Failure To Diagnose

Failure to diagnose refers to the inability to diagnose a condition in a typical amount of time when that condition has a standard presentation.

Failure To Review Lab/Test Results

Failure to review lab or test results is another risk that’s important to mitigate through the risk management process. If test results are left unreviewed, patients could go without a diagnosis or need to repeat tests unnecessarily.

Get Feedback for Your Risk Managers With Podium

To get the most out of your risk management program, it’s helpful to have insight from the people you help most: your patients. With Podium, sending out patient satisfaction surveys is easier than ever, allowing you to improve your customer service and processes for a stronger reputation in the healthcare industry. Watch a demo to learn more.