Healthcare Risk Management

This article discusses healthcare risk management, its importance, common healthcare risks, ISO 31000 risk management framework, clinical safety targets, and BowTie risk management methodology. It also provides expert guidance on identifying potential risks in the workplace and reducing their impact. References are included for further reading.

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Healthcare Risk Management

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Declaration
I certify that this assignment is my own work, based on my personal study and/or research,
and that I have acknowledged all material and sources used in the preparation of this final
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I also certify that the final assignment has not previously been submitted for assessment in
any other course or at any other time in this Course, unless by negotiation, and that I have
not copied in part or whole or otherwise plagiarised the work of other students and/or
persons. I have read the GBS policy on plagiarism and understand its implications.

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Table of Contents
Declaration.......................................................................................................................................2
Part 1................................................................................................................................................4
Q1. Define risk and its importance..............................................................................................4
Q2. The most common healthcare risks are:................................................................................4
Q3. ISO 31000 Risk Management Framework............................................................................5
Q4. Questions related to potential risks in your working place...................................................5
Q5. Clinical safety targets............................................................................................................6
Q6. Medical Eros.........................................................................................................................6
7. BowTie Risk Management Methodology................................................................................7
References........................................................................................................................................9

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Part 1
Q1. Define risk and its importance
According to the healthcare dictionary, the term 'risk' refers to a threat or hazard indicating the
likelihood of suffering harm due to an increased amount of incidence of illness or fatality in
individuals.
Risk management plays a vital role in healthcare industry in order to put human lives on the line.
A healthcare risk management plan is useful in recognizing and minimizing the health risks
along with the liability and financial risks as well (Card, and Klein, 2016). Since the risks to
patients, employees, and the to the whole organization are common in the field of medical care,
it is important for every medical organization to hire experienced and qualified healthcare
experts for evaluating, building, formulating, and managing risks with a purpose of reducing its
potential impact.
Following are the 5 hazardous domains where we should focus on in healthcare risk
management:
i. Cyber Risk
ii. Healthcare Infections
iii. Telemedicine
iv. Violent Incidents in Hospitals (Segal, 2017)
v. Alarm Fatigue
Q2. The most common healthcare risks are:
Cyber Risks: This domain involves management of network disruptions and data breaches, that
can harm an organization’s security, financial stability, and reputation.

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Preparedness for Healthcare infections: Healthcare infections (HAIs) can cost a healthcare
system hundreds of thousands of dollars and loss of human lives every year. Thus, management
of this domain in crucial (Felton et al., 2018).
Violent Incidents in Hospitals and Healthcare Settings: Hospitals sometimes experience a
growing number of violent happenings which not only harm patients lives but also of medical
employees who become the targets of harassment, attacks, intimidation and other unruly
activities.
Alarm Fatigue: The beeps and tweets of alarms on medical devices like cardiac monitors, and
ventilators are designed to draw attention to a potential issue; however they can easily be tuned
out by inundated surgeons who could fail to react as they should.
Q3. ISO 31000 Risk Management Framework
ISO 31000 sets framework, principles, and principles for managing risk (Westermann et al.,
2017). It is used by any organization including healthcare for comparing its risk management
policy with an international yardstick, developing the probability of attaining objectives of
medical care and quality, identification of opportunities and risks, and allocating the use of
resources for effective risk treatment.
Q4. Questions related to potential risks in your working place
Following are the questions to ask to identify potential risks in working place:
 Is there any noise in the workplace?
 Are healthcare professionals exposed to any harmful radiation?
 Are devices supplied for any accidents?

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 Are there any blind spots in the work space? (Card, and Klein, 2016)
 Are individuals at risk from harassment from other employees within the organization?
Q5. Clinical safety targets
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has identified 6 areas of clinical safety
targets: falls, infections, medication errors, injuries of behavioral health, security, medication
errors, and patient handling. Among these two important are:
 Patient handling: This program aims at improving patient care and the bottom line.
Adopting a complete safe patient handling program safeguards employees and patients,
ensures right use of data, evidences, and tools (Chou et al., 2015).
 Security: Security Management targets describe the processes for decreasing hazards to
the possible extent in the physical environment, and to manage staff activities.
Q6. Medical Eros
 Medication Error: Healthcare organizations apply retrospective analysis to lessen the
large number of clinical errors (Kruse et al., 2017). The root cause of medication errors is
the surgeon’s awareness about the patient and faith she had the correct patient for the
medication result in failure to align the patient’s detection band with the medication.
 Diagram showing retrospective analysis of medical error:

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7. BowTie Risk Management Methodology
 Daily Process is BowTie Process
 Single potential error is equipment failure
 Potential causes that might lead to this risk: Working with risky devices, driving a car or
dealing with sensitive information
 The barrier that you can have in place to prevent the risk from happening: Control and
Recovery Barriers (Runciman et al., 2017)
Medical
Device Clinical
Team
Patient
Infrastructure
(Eg. Procurement, maintenance)

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 Consequences of that risk: environmental damage, fatality, reputation or financial
damage
 Barriers that can prevent the risk from converting into sequence: Escalation factors &
Escalation factor barriers.
 Overcome such challenges by designing an effective process safety management.

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References
Card, A.J. and Klein, V.R. (2016) A new frontier in healthcare risk management: working to
reduce avoidable patient suffering, Journal of Healthcare Risk Management, 35(3), pp.31-37.
Chou, R., Turner, J.A., Devine, E.B., Hansen, R.N., Sullivan, S.D., Blazina, I., Dana, T.,
Bougatsos, C. and Deyo, R.A. (2015) The effectiveness and risks of long-term opioid therapy for
chronic pain: a systematic review for a National Institutes of Health Pathways to Prevention
Workshop, Annals of internal medicine, 162(4), pp.276-286.
Felton, K.W., Howard, C.M. and Osgood, E. (2018) The evolving role of analytics to determine
hospital risk management staffing, Journal of Healthcare Risk Management, 38(2), pp.12-18.
Kruse, C.S., Frederick, B., Jacobson, T. and Monticone, D.K. (2017) Cybersecurity in
healthcare: A systematic review of modern threats and trends, Technology and Health
Care, 25(1), pp.1-10.
Runciman, B., Merry, A. and Walton, M. (2017) Safety and ethics in healthcare: a guide to
getting it right. USA: CRC Press.
Segal, S. (2017) Controlling Critical Risks in Healthcare, IJCTT Journal, 48(1), pp.24-2.
Westermann, D., Goodman, S.G., Nicolau, J.C., Requena, G., Maguire, A., Chen, J.Y., Granger,
C.B., Grieve, R., Pocock, S.J., Blankenberg, S. and Vega, A.M. (2017) Rationale and design of
the long‐Term rIsk, clinical manaGement, and healthcare Resource utilization of stable coronary
artery dISease in post–myocardial infarction patients (TIGRIS) study, Clinical
cardiology, 40(12), pp.1197-1204.