Assignment about Clinical Risk Management and Patient

Running head: CLINICAL RISK MANAGEMENT AND PATIENT SAFETY: DESCRIPTION
CLINICAL RISK MANAGEMENT AND PATIENT SAFETY: DESCRIPTION OF EACH
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CLINICAL RISK MANAGEMENT AND PATIENT SAFETY: DESCRIPTION1
Introduction
Clinical Risk Management (CRM) is the process of identifying potentially harmful or
risky healthcare factors which can threaten patient health for the purpose of improving safety and
quality of services and resources provided by a healthcare organization (World Health
Organization, 2020). The following paper will briefly expound upon the importance of CRM in
patient safety, its underlying principles and strategies with which organizations and practitioners
can implement the same.
Discussion
Importance in Patient Safety
Healthcare organizations are required to address numerous complex and emergency
patient situations in a short period of time, which increases the risk of errors and make it
imperative to practice CRM, especially considering life and death situations in patients (Smith,
2017; Fonarow, 2019). Prevalence of preventable errors also contributes to loss of patient trust
and financial losses both for the family as well as the organization (Trevino et al., 2018).
Mitigation of patient harms and risks by practicing CRM helps in reduced incidences of errors
and practices, reduced harmful patient outcomes and increased ability to deliver safe, quality and
effective patient care (Walker et al., 2018).
Risks in Healthcare
Risks across healthcare professionals
 Absence of providing the correct diagnosis.
 Absence of correctly interpreting or reviewing results of patient assessments (Flannigan,
2018).

CLINICAL RISK MANAGEMENT AND PATIENT SAFETY: DESCRIPTION2
Risks across healthcare outpatient as well as inpatient departments
 Errors in correct medication administration.
 Healthcare associated infections due to lack of adequate disinfection practices.
 Lack of correct or timely handover communication practitioners, families, patients and
staff (Pankiewicz-Dulacz et al., 2018).
Risks across elderly care, community care or residential healthcare facilities
 Inability to reduce falls and pressure ulcer incidences across patients.
 Inadequate fluid or food intake resulting in dehydration, malnutrition and choking (Tariq
et al., 2018).
CRM Principles
According to the Government of Western Australia (2019), CRM involves:
 Identification of potential errors which may occur in healthcare,
 Evaluating the factors influencing the occurrence of these errors,
 Taking insights from previous experiences of negative health outcomes and adverse
health events,
 Administering necessary action for preventing repetition of such outcomes, and,
 Ensuring the prevalence of a system which are free from risks or where such risks are
reduced.
With this respect, the principles of CRM are:
1. Step 1: Establishing the context or scenario where risks can occur.
2. Step 2: Identifying potential risks relevant to the context.
3. Step 3: Analyzing the severity and likelihood of risks.