Health facility risk management programs work to maintain a safe environment, prevent harm to staff, patients and visitors and reduce the risk of lawsuits filed against the organization. A facilities risk management plan outlines measures to prevent loss to the organization, whether property or money.

Hospital risk managers, when formulating a hospital risk management plan, may use a Root Cause Analysis strategy to identify health facility risks, their causes and measures to prevent them from occurring. For example, in terms of preventing property loss, the hospital risk management team may tag equipment, assign responsibility of that equipment to an individual and perform random inventory inspections to ensure the equipment is still on-site. Examples of necessary supplies and equipment for health facility risk management programs include:

1. Personal protection for medical risk management

2. Safety signs

3. Barcode software and equipment

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Purchase a toolkit to assist in the development of a hospital risk managements program

Professional risk management toolkits are an invaluable resource for those risk managers who are developing and/or implementing a risk management plan for the first time or for an individual assigned the task of developing such a plan for the organization. Toolkits provide an overview of conducting assessments, developing educational programs and operating a risk management program for a health care facility, as well as policies and regulations they should follow for success.

I recommend: The Risk Management Program Development Tool Kit contains a CD that provides instruction on conducting assessments as well as policies, procedures and other educational materials. Falls Prevention Strategies in Healthcare Settings assists in the development of a risk management program aimed at preventing and reducing falls, which are one of the most common injuries that occur and can be costly to the organization in terms of workmen’s compensation and lawsuits.

Secure personal protection supplies for medical risk management applications.

Healthcare workers risk coming into contact with biohazardous materials as part of the normal operations of their job duties and responsibilities. Without the availability of personal safety supplies such as rubber gloves, head covers, shoe covers, safety glasses and side shields, healthcare workers risk exposure to infectious diseases, which poses important issues in risk management for healthcare workers.

I recommend: Northwest Health and Safety and Masune First Aid & Safety supply the personal protection, biohazard supplies and emergency response items that healthcare workers need to have available to them as part of any health facility’s risk management program.

Purchase supplies and equipment for health facility risk management

Implementing safety signs that indicate fire escapes, floor signs warning individuals of slippery floors and 'CAUTION' or 'WATCH YOUR STEP' safety tape as part of a health facility risk management program is effective in alerting individuals to take heed and exercise caution to prevent injury.

I recommend: Discount Safety Gear and Grainger Industrial Supply market safety signs, safety tape and floor signs, which health facilities need to implement and operate a risk management program.

Procure barcode software and equipment as part of the facilities risk management plan

Barcode software and printers allow organizations to create an inventory of their physical property and assist the risk manager in the monitoring of the hospital risk management plan through inventory inspections.

I recommend: Uline Shipping Supplies and Wasp Barcode Technologies sell barcode software and related equipment that organizations can utilize to monitor their physical property.

Healthcare facilities risk management is a must in order to protect workers and patients, but also to protect against frivolous lawsuits. Healthcare risk management programs are de rigueur in large hospitals, but are increasingly common in small clinics and practices. Risk management for healthcare involves finding and reducing potential risks, ensuring that care and facilities are up to standards and tracking complaints carefully to prevent inadvertent negligence.

You don’t have to be a large facility with a huge budget to have a hospital risk management plan of action. Today, affordable health facility risk management services, including software, exist for healthcare environments of all sizes.

If you work in the healthcare field, you need to consider:

1. Keeping track of and evaluating incidents and complaints to identify existing risks.

2. Hiring facilities risk management services or professionals to evaluate your facility and train your personnel.

3. Going beyond healthcare risk management with solid plans that include legal assistance and insurance.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Look for healthcare risk management software

The cornerstone of any health facility risk management system is an awareness of potential risk, and there is no better way to determine the risks than by examining what is not currently working. You can use medical risk management software -- sometimes called incident reporting software -- to keep track of problems at your facility. The information you gather is invaluable to any hospital risk managers you may hire later, and the software allows you to start examining potential problems in your healthcare facility.

I recommend: CCD Health Systems offers incident reporting software, designed to help healthcare facilities reduce medication errors, improve patient safety and manage risks. Q Solutions, Inc offers a software application for healthcare facilities that can document and analyze incident reporting.

Choose hospital risk management services to target processes at your facility

Once you have some information about incidents and problems at your facility, a good health facility risks management service is the next step. Professionals who specialize in risk management for healthcare can help you determine additional risks in your facility -- risks that may not yet have resulted in incidents -- and can help bring your facility processes to standard. Professional hospital risk managers can also help you develop a realistic risk management plan.

I recommend: Adams & Associates can help your facility review and develop programs that will protect your patients from injury and your facility from legal action. Some facilities may qualify for the company’s complimentary risk management and regulatory evaluation. Universal Healthcare Consulting offers a variety of management services that find and correct possible risks in health facilities. The company can help your facility implement compliance programs to meet guidelines, can provide accreditation and licensing guidance and can provide training.

Seek out healthcare risk management services to educate your staff

One of the most important issues in risk management for healthcare facilities involves employee error. Even if you have carefully structured your facility processes to provide optimal care, your staff can still make mistakes that can lead to malpractice claims. One way to combat this common problem is to look for hospital risk management services that help teach healthcare staff specific checks they can perform to reduce errors.

I recommend: Carol M. Stock & Associates provides conferences, workshops, consultations and seminars to nursing and other hospital staff to reduce health facility risks. AIG provides specialized programs for chiropractors, dentists, nurse practitioners, physical therapists and other healthcare staff to reduce liability and errors.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Even if you have incident reporting software, it is a good idea to seek out a third party for risk management. Having a paper trail of healthcare risk management plans and practices shows that you are responsible and doing everything possible to provide the best care. In the event of a lawsuit, such evidence could be very useful.

The purpose of a health facility risk management plan is to assess potential risks to the safety and well being of staff, patients, or visitors, identify what measures a facility can take to reduce or eliminate those risks, implement those measures into the operations of the facility, provide safety training to staff and continually monitor the risk management program. Risk management plans are important to the operation of a healthcare facility because an effective plan not only provides a safe environment for staff, patients, and visitors, but it also reduces workers compensation claims and lawsuits due to falls and other personal injury.

Resources available to help complete a healthcare risk management plan include:

1. Manuals providing instruction on completing a hospital risk management plan

2. Hospital risk management consultants

3. Healthcare risk management seminars or conferences

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Reference a manual providing instruction on completing a hospital risk management plan.

A healthcare risk management plan examines and identifies those procedures and aspects of the physical environment that have the potential to harm staff, patients or guests and take measures to reduce or eliminate the possibility of harm occurring. An important component of a successful healthcare facilities risk management plan is training to educate staff on safety procedures, location of spill response kits and general housekeeping procedures to help avoid falls in the workplace. Hospital risk managers taking the time to implement the various components of a hospital risk management plan can help ensure a safe environment for all and in turn reduce the amount of money spent on worker's compensation claims and lawsuits due to personal injury.

I recommend: Those new to the field will benefit by referring to manuals such as Risk Management Handbook for Health Care Organizations or Risk Management in Health Care Institutions: A Strategic Approach to assist the medical risk management team develop a risk management plan for the facility.

Contract with a hospital risk management consultant for help with program development

Risk management consultants can offer a great deal of experience to organizations in health facility risk management. Because they are knowledgeable on important issues in risk management for healthcare, they can be an invaluable resource for those who are new to the field.. Risk management consultants inspect the facility to ensure the hospital staff has appropriate protective devices and equipment to protect them when performing procedures, ensure all areas are clean, free from litter and unnecessary equipment and that mopped hallways have floor signs indicating the hazard.

I recommend: American International Group (AIG) and AON are healthcare risk management consultants whose services will help you develop an effective risk management plan for your healthcare facility.

Attend a healthcare risk management seminar or conference

Seminars and conferences are an effective way to learn how to assess, plan, develop, implement and monitor your health facility risk management. For beginners, individuals learn firsthand the basics of performing assessments, plan development, creating teamwork as part of the risk management plans implementation and, perhaps most important, mistakes others have made and what they have learned from them. In addition, seminars and conferences also keep hospital risk managers abreast of important risk management issues for healthcare.

I recommend: Safety Logic Systems and Professional Risk Management Services offer seminars that hospital risk managers may participate in as part of their facilities risk management program.

When developing a risk management plan for a health care facility, it's important to know the definitions of commonly used key terms. Whether you're writing the plan yourself or hiring a risk management consulting firm, you'll want to understand the potentially confusing words and phrases that often pop up in risk management. Medical risk management strives to prevent adverse events, which are incidents that could cost the health facility both money and reputation.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Incident reporting software

Incident reporting software is a computer or web-based program that allows health care facilities to log and track adverse events. By analyzing the reported incidents, the software provides health care facilities with information that helps reduce the risk of recurring events.

I recommend: For an example of web-based incident reporting software for the health care industry, visit CCD Health Systems.

Informed consent

Informed consent refers to the policy of obtaining a patient's signature following a detailed explanation of what a procedure entails, including its risks. Without obtaining the patient's informed consent, a physician is vulnerable to accusations of malpractice.

I recommend: Learn more about informed consent at the Yale-New Haven Hospital & Yale University School of Medicine website. To see examples of informed consent forms, visit the Ophthalmic Mutual Insurance Company website.

Advance directives

Advance directives are instructions for medical treatment if a patient is unable to make decisions regarding care. An advance directive can be either verbal or written guidelines, determined by the individual before an incapacitating illness or injury. A do-not-resuscitate order is an example of an advance directive.

I recommend: Read more about advance directives at the Jamaica Hospital Medical Center website. Additional information about advance directives can be found at MedlinePlus.

Malpractice coverage

Malpractice coverage, also referred to as professional indemnity insurance, covers the cost of defending lawsuits filed by patients claiming they have been harmed by a health care worker's negligence. The coverage also pays for damages awarded if the plaintiff wins the lawsuit.

I recommend: Read an article about malpractice coverage at Physician's News Digest. For examples of medical malpractice coverage, visit The Doctors Company.

Algorithms

Algorithms are diagnostic tools that help health care workers make decisions about a patient's care. The algorithm walks the nurse or physician through a series of symptoms and scenarios, then provides the recommended course of action.

I recommend: To read an example of how an algorithm is used in conjunction with other diagnostic testing, visit the Pennsylvania Department of Health.

Culture of safety

The culture of safety model is implemented by ensuring every worker in a health care facility is focused on safety. When an adverse event occurs, the culture of safety examines what caused the event rather than placing blame on an individual. The goal is to identify the system's failures and work to correct them in a positive manner.

I recommend: Learn more about the culture of safety model at the Department of Community and Family Medicine, Duke University Medical Center website. Read about behaviors that disrupt a culture of safety at The Joint Commission website.