Analyze a specific issue that occurred in a health care organization and apply risk management best practices to it for the purpose of early risk identification and risk reduction or elimination in the future.

 Health care organizations have always searched for ways to identify and reduce risks. An organization\’s ability to identify and analyze its risk exposure is a determining factor in the effectiveness of its risk management program (Hoarle, 2015). Early identification and analysis are essential.

Current health care risk management practices developed in the mid-1970s as a result of a surge in malpractice suits. These suits caused rapid increases in claims costs for the industry and later in insurance premiums. Today, health care delivery systems and organizations realize the value of risk management and have developed formalized programs (Hoarle, 2015). In addition, organizations have established mechanisms to review potential incidents of risk and safety concerns (Pelletier & Beaudin, 2018). While risk management programs are responsible for daily management and risk operations, all health care stakeholders are responsible to participate in activities that will reduce unnecessary risks and improve safety and quality (Hoarle, 2015).

This second course assessment consists of two parts. You are to assume the role of a new risk manager within your organization\’s risk management department. According to your director, employees lack awareness of the organization\’s risk management program. Likewise, departments inconsistently apply risk management principles. As a result of these deficiencies, your director has given you your first assignment.

Part One: Risk Management Policy and Procedure

Your director has asked you to write a formal risk management policy and procedure for the organization.

Part Two: Application of Risk Management Principles to a Specific Incident

In addition to the policy and procedure, your director has asked you to apply your knowledge of risk management principles to a specific organizational risk that has occurred. You will select one of the three incidents from the Vila Health: Patient Safety media piece from Assessment 1. These incidents included a patient identification error, a medication error, and a HIPAA/privacy violation. Select the risk that holds the most interest for you.

Your director believes that the organization\’s newly written risk management policy and procedure, coupled with your analysis from a risk management standpoint of a recent, specific incident that occurred, will help employees (and the organization) recognize how the hospital\’s risk management program contributes to the overall organization\’s safety and quality improvement efforts.

References

Hoarle, K. (2015). Risk management poised to grow as healthcare evolves. Biomedical Instrumentation & Technology, 49(6), 433–435.

Pelletier, L. R., & Beaudin, C. L. (2018). HQ solutions: Resource for the healthcare quality professional (4th ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Wolters Kluwer.

Demonstration of Proficiency

By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the course competencies through the following assessment scoring guide criteria:

• Competency 1: Analyze the quality and performance improvement activities within the health care organization.
  • Propose evidence-based risk management strategies and techniques to identify and eliminate or reduce a particular risk.
• Competency 2: Explain the risk management function in the health care organization.
  • Explain the importance of a risk management program to health care organizations.
  • Define key risk management terms.
  • Describe the major risk categories in a health care organization, along with their corresponding risk identification techniques.
• Competency 4: Apply leadership strategies to quality improvement in a health care organization.
  • Analyze the risk manager\’s role in effective management of the organization\’s risk management program.
• Competency 5: Communicate in a manner that is scholarly, professional, and respectful of the diversity, dignity, and integrity of others and is consistent with health care professionals.
  • Write a clear, organized risk management policy and procedure that is generally free of errors and is reflective of professional communication in the health care field.
  • Provide citations and title and reference pages that conform to APA style and format.

Preparation

To help prepare for successfully completing this assessment:

• Conduct independent research on policy templates. You will find multiple policy templates from which to choose as you write your risk policy and procedure.
• Select one of the organizational risks from the Vila Health: Patient Safety simulation from Assessment 1. These included a patient identification error, a medication error, and a HIPAA/privacy violation. For Part Two of your assessment you will conduct an in-depth analysis of the organizational risk you selected.

Instructions

Part One: Risk Management Policy and Procedure (3–4 pages)

As the new risk manager in your health care organization, your director has assigned you responsibility for drafting the organization\’s risk management policy and procedure. This assignment stemmed from your director\’s perception that employees lacked knowledge and awareness of risk management\’s contribution to furthering the organization\’s safety and quality improvement efforts. Likewise, your director also saw evidence that departments within the organization were inconsistently applying risk management principles to their daily work practices.

The guidance you have received from your director about writing this policy and procedure is that it needs to include all of the following headings. It also needs to answer all of the questions underneath each heading:

• Purpose Statement:
  • How can a risk management program help this organization advance its strategic safety and quality goals?
• Key Risk Management Terms:
  • What is the definition for each of these risk management terms?
    • Risk prevention.
    • Risk reduction.
    • Regulatory compliance.
    • Patient safety.
    • Adverse event.
    • Near miss.
• Risk Categories and Risk Identification Techniques:
  • What are the major risk categories in health care? In your answer, be sure to explain each risk category and to provide relevant examples from the literature to illustrate your points.
  • What risk management strategies will the organization use to identify potential organizational risks? Be sure your narrative identifies and describes such risk identification techniques as concurrent, retrospective, incident reporting, and previous trends. ?Note: These are only a few of the risk identification techniques to address in your policy and procedure. Be sure to include other examples you are aware of from your professional experience or from reviewing your suggested resources.
  • What are examples of risk categories and their appropriate corresponding risk identification techniques? For example, coding errors are a type of financial risk. Retrospective auditing is the risk identification technique used to identify this risk type.
• Risk Manager\’s Role in Program Implementation and Compliance:
  • What is the risk manager\’s role in risk management program implementation and compliance?
  • How can a risk manager impact effective management of the organization\’s risk management program?
  • What is one example from the literature that shows how the risk manager role can positively impact a health care organization\’s management of its risk management program?

Part Two: Application of Risk Management Principles to a Specific Incident (3–4 pages)

To further help employees and the organization at large see risk management\’s contribution to helping the organization achieve its safety and quality goals, your director has asked you to analyze and apply risk management principles to a recent incident that occurred in the organization. Your director has asked you to include all of the following headings in your analysis and to address all of the questions underneath each heading.

• Risk Description:
  • Which potential risk to your organization from the Vila Health: Patient Safety simulation are you analyzing? These included patient identification error, medication error, and a HIPAA/privacy violation.
• Risk Implications:
  • What are the risks to patients, employees, and to the organization if this particular risk is not addressed? In other words, what could happen if the organization chooses to do nothing?
• Risk Identification:
  • What risk management strategies and techniques will the organization employ to identify this type of risk in the future? For example, will the organization identify this type of risk by analyzing incident report data? What other strategies might the organization employ to identify the risk? Be sure to include your rationale for choosing the particular strategy(ies).
• Risk Reduction/Elimination:
  • What risk management best practices could the organization employ to eliminate or reduce the risk in the future? For example, if you plan to identify the risk by analyzing incident report data, would you conduct a drill down to determine what is causing the risk? What other best practices might you employ? Consult your suggested resources for guidance on best practices for eliminating and reducing  risk.
  • What steps would you take to implement your plan to eliminate or reduce your selected risk?

Additional Requirements

• Length: Your risk management policy and procedure assessment will be 6–8 double-spaced pages, not including title and reference pages.
• Font: Times New Roman, 12-point.
• APA Format: In the health care environment, typically a policy and procedure and analysis document would not be written according to APA style and format. To make this assessment as authentic as possible to what you might actually encounter in the workplace, the body of your assessment does not need to conform to APA guidelines. Do make sure that it is clear, persuasive, organized, and well written without grammatical, punctuation, or spelling errors. At the same time, health care is an evidence-based field. As such, your title and reference pages need to conform to APA format and style guidelines. Likewise, you also must cite your sources according to APA guidelines. Your leaders may question you about the sources of the information you are providing them.
• Scoring Guide: Please review this assessment\’s scoring guide to ensure you understand how your faculty member will evaluate your work.