Risk management in healthcare is being able to identify and prevent potential hazards, both physical and personal. The most common areas of risk management involve patient safety, environment of care, mitigation, liability, and malpractice. Exploring these categories further brings a better understanding of risk management within a healthcare setting.
Some areas of risk to address in any risk management plan include:
- Employees have a duty to be aware of the safety of all patients. The use of monitoring technology allows staff to oversee several patients with different medical needs at one time. Such needs can include medications, wound care, vital checks, ambulation, and overall hygiene care. The global tracking of the health of your patients is called population health and includes considerations for chronic disease management and social determinants of health.
- Involving patients in the responsibility of their own care is another way of ensuring patient care. When a patient understands the process of their care it can reduce the risks of infections, slips, falls and other injuries, and worsening chronic disease.
- The most important part of patient safety is the ongoing communication of staff involving patients. Healthcare workers have a responsibility to keep detailed records of patient care during each shift to avoid mishaps. These efforts can be tracked through patient grievances and incident reporting. A best practice is to have staff report near misses (often referred to as a “good catch”) to fix problems before they occur.
- The space where patients will be treated factors into environment of care, safety, and risk. Patients, visitors, and employees need to be in a safe and functional environment to avoid further injuries and illness. When employees are aware of such things as locations of fire exits and extinguishers, hazardous materials, and locations of life saving equipment the risk for unexpected dangers is reduced. The more educated employees become with the environment of care the more likely they are to follow proper procedures and precautions.
- The efforts you make to stop issues before they occur are called risk mitigation and are finding useful ways to prevent hazards and accidents involving patients and staff. Training employees in the policies and procedures of healthcare practices is the first step in the importance of mitigation. Old policies and procedures must be updated to follow ever-changing medical technology, procedures, terminology, regulations, and standards.
- Tracking the usage and faults made by employees is just as important as the training of such policies and procedures. Reporting and recording mishaps made by employees through incident and near miss reporting will aid in the mitigation of risks. Failures to protect patient safety or provide proper and diligent care will cause liability. Liabilities can involve physical injuries or death, financial mistakes, negative and avoidable health outcomes, and violations of patient confidentiality.
- Informed consent is obtained by providers before patients undergo procedures, which ensure the patient knows the risks associated with a procedure and protects the practice if a patient is injured during treatment. It is important for patients to be made fully aware of the possible risks during surgeries, medication treatments, and therapies to limit exposure to liability.
- Medical malpractice can involve physical or personal harm. A provider may misdiagnose, delay treatment, perform surgical mistakes, order unnecessary treatment, or breach patient confidentiality causing a potential malpractice lawsuit. Patients may seek financial settlements if they can prove malpractice has occurred by a breach of duty performed, the cause of that breach, and the damage made during said breach. This potential exposure is why professional liability (also known as malpractice) insurance is a necessary coverage for any healthcare practice.
The many contributing factors of risk management in healthcare are put into place to avoid mistakes and protect patients from potential hazards. Healthcare employees have a duty and obligation to always look out for the safety of patients. They must continuously be aware of their surroundings and the layout of any facility and environment.
Healthcare management needs to use mitigation strategies to avoid the potential for harm and understand that precautions must be taken to avoid liabilities against a professional or facility which can result in medical malpractice.