Health Facility Risk Management

Medical risk management doesn't have to be risky business
By A Antonow 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.

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.
Try:  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.
Try:  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.
Try:  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.

• 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.