Healthcare Risk Management

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1. Risk Management:
Risk in the healthcare industry is defined as the means to reduce injury to patients, staff, and visitors in a facility. Therefore, risk management is the process that occurs to help reduce the incidences of preventable injuries or accidents and to minimize the financial loss an institute could incur through an injury or accident. Risk management was created to help the healthcare industry look at the possible ways an injury or accident could occur and try to alleviate any unnecessary risk that could lead to an incident. Tens of thousands of medical errors occur that lead to patient deaths in the healthcare industry annually (Enrado, 2007). Risk management has taken a very large role in overseeing patient safety, clinical …show more content…

The first obstacle in risk management is getting the incident documented. There is a concern that “reporting” an issue can be “bad”. Other the years we have attempted to change that mindset by encouraging the reporting by staff members when there is an issue that requires reporting. Most facilities have risk management software that allows staff to easily report the issues and in a timely manner. The key to documenting an incident is to document in objective terms. Describe exactly what happened, what action was taken, and all times related to the incident. The things that should not be in your documentation are any names or addresses of witnesses, any liability or responsibility, and the incident should not be filed in the patient’s medical record. All procedures should be followed when documenting. You should also document any attempts to notify family members or physicians on the condition or any change in the patient’s status after the incident. You should never alter any documentation that has been …show more content…

In the report, we would state; a sample drawn from John Doe on 3/6/18 at 1500 in the emergency dept was labeled as Jane Doe. The tech discovered the error at 1515 and notified the nurse at 1516 that the sample would have to be redrawn.

This example states the issue, the time it occurred, and the time the nurse was notified of the incident. All the facts are stated for the incident without putting blame on any area or department. It does not list any names of personnel involved. That should not be listed in the description of the incident. Through the event reporting software the detailed information will be recorded and it would be listed in a particle category of incident.

4. Guidelines for The Joint Commission:
To achieve Joint Commission accreditation, the facility must show compliance with the following standards:
1. The facility must show proof that they have provided the resources and support for the quality assurance and risk management functions related to the patient care and safety within the

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