HLTH 7005 - Healthcare Risk Management Framework: Outbreak Control

This report provides a detailed overview of a risk management framework designed for healthcare settings to identify, evaluate, and respond to potential disease outbreaks. The framework includes six key steps: determining priorities of risks, identifying risks, evaluating risks, responding to risks, re...Read More

HLTH 7005
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INTRODUCTION
Risk management in healthcare involves clinical and
administrative systems that are incorporated to identify and
monitor potential risks like outbreaks. Potential outbreaks can
be eliminated by planning an appropriate risk management
framework. Proper implementation of strategies in a
framework helps to keep risk under prudent control.
Responsibility is divided among members of management
team in a healthcare setting.

OBJECTIVES OF THE RISK
MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORK
• Main objective of a risk management framework
is to increase understanding of local
administration and healthcare management
regarding potential outbreaks.
• Severity of risk can also be evaluated by this
framework (Jiang et al. 2016).
• Responsibilities of management team can be
described.
• Procedures of risk assessment and monitoring
can be developed by this framework.

RISK MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORK
Determining
priorities of
risks
Identification
of risk
Evaluation of
risk
Responding to
risk Reporting risk Reviewing
risk
Goals and
objectives are
prioritized.
Potential risk
of outbreak are
identified.
Potential
impact of risk
is assessed
Choosing
strategy to
respond to
risks.
Reporting of
risks based on
residual score
Measuring
frequency of
risk compared
to residual risk
Responsible person: Manager and leaders Responsible person:
Staffs

STEP 1: DETERMINING
PRIORITIES OF RISKS
• Different goals and objectives of risk
management about a potential outbreak must
be framed.
• Management team needs to be clear
regarding each objective and services they
need to provide to manage or treat a risk.
• Time scales can help in measuring priorities
of framed objectives (Harrington, Krupnick
& Spofford Jr (2016).

STEP 2: IDENTIFICATION OF RISK
• This is a critical activity at both strategic and
operational level, which can be done by
including all probable sources of risks.
• Information technology, disease surveillance
systems can be used as early warning systems
for potential outbreaks (Ncbi.nlm.nih.gov,
2019).
• Survey and monitoring of a region can help in
the process of identification of potential
outbreaks.

STEP 3: EVALUATION OF RISK
• Evaluation of risk is done to separate minor and major risks.
• Consequences and likelihood of risks are measured with the help of risk ranking matrix.
• Inherent risk rating comes after evaluation of consequences and likelihood
(Sommerstein et al. 2017).
• Inherent rating of risk denotes actual risk level in a normal environment.

STEP 4: RESPONDING TO RISK
• Avoid: No action is performed for avoiding gain of
same outcome of outbreak.
• Mitigate: Improvement of management of outbreak
to reduce likelihood and implementation of strategy
for minimizing further consequences.
• Transferring risk: Communicating with other
parties to ask them to deal with the risk of outbreak.
• Accepting risk: appropriate control measures are
taken (Banach et al. 2017).

STEP 5: REPORTING RISK & STEP
6: REVIEWING RISK
Risk score Actions needed
9-10 Immediate responses needed
7-8 Proper action plan required
5-6 Monitoring required
0-4 Management through routine process
•Different risks can be prioritized by risk scoring matrix that includes score and
action required.
•Revision potential risks can be done by constant monitoring (Stokes et al. 2015).
• At least monthly for risk score > 9 and yearly <4.

BENEFITS OF FRAMEWORK IN
OUTBREAK MANAGEMENT
• This risk management framework helps to make
decision regarding patient care to prevent
further occurrence of disease.
• It helps in recognize possibilities of outbreak
and helps to take initiatives to prevent outbreak
(Bryant et al. 2016).
• This framework helps in understanding risk
levels before developing effective strategies to
mitigate risks.

CONCLUSION
Framework of risk management is an essential tool that helps in
identifying potential risks of disease outbreak. Members of
management team need to play their roles and responsibility
for managing this framework. Using relevant tools techniques
can be used to monitoring various potential risks. Hence,
proper precaution can be taken, which can mitigate probable
risks.

REFERENCE LIST
• Banach, D. B., Johnston, B. L., Al-Zubeidi, D., Bartlett, A. H., Bleasdale, S. C., Deloney, V. M., ... & Popovich, K. J. (2017). Outbreak
response and incident management: SHEA guidance and resources for healthcare epidemiologists in United States acute-care hospitals.
infection control & hospital epidemiology, 38(12), 1393-1419. Retrieved from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29187263
• Bryant, K. A., Harris, A. D., Gould, C. V., Humphreys, E., Lundstrom, T., Murphy, D. M., ... & Zerr, D. (2016). Necessary
infrastructure of infection prevention and healthcare epidemiology programs: a review. infection control & hospital epidemiology,
37(4), 371-380. Retrieved from: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/b756/779ffaa8ab66fee96bc9c5032e8b4b42ee16.pdf
• Harrington, W., Krupnick, A. J., & Spofford Jr, W. O. (2016). Economics and episodic disease: the benefits of preventing a giardiasis
outbreak. UK: Routledge.
• https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Barbara_Hasse/publication/
310317353_Mycobacterium_chimaera_Outbreak_Associated_With_Heater-Cooler_Devices_Piecing_the_Puzzle_Together/links/
5ae59890aca272ba50809ae5/Mycobacterium-chimaera-Outbreak-Associated-With-Heater-Cooler-Devices-Piecing-the-Puzzle-
Together.pdf
• Jiang, H., Shi, G. Q., Tu, W. X., Zheng, C. J., Lai, X. H., Li, X. X., ... & Chen, M. Q. (2016). Rapid assessment of knowledge, attitudes,
practices, and risk perception related to the prevention and control of Ebola virus disease in three communities of Sierra Leone.
Infectious diseases of poverty, 5(1), 53. Retrieved on 28th May 2019, from:
https://idpjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40249-016-0142-9
• Ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. (2019). Forecasting Disease Risk for Increased Epidemic Preparedness in Public Health. Retrieved on 28th May
2019, from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3196833/
• Sommerstein, R., Schreiber, P. W., Diekema, D. J., Edmond, M. B., Hasse, B., Marschall, J., & Sax, H. (2017). Mycobacterium
chimaera outbreak associated with heater-cooler devices: piecing the puzzle together. infection control & hospital epidemiology, 38(1),
103-108. Retrieved from:
• Stokes, J., Panagioti, M., Alam, R., Checkland, K., Cheraghi-Sohi, S., & Bower, P. (2015). Effectiveness of case management for'At
Risk'patients in primary care: a systematic review and meta-analysis. PloS one, 10(7), e0132340. Retrieved on 28th May 2019, from:
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0132340