Question

You've been appointed as chair of your hospital’s risk management committee. Describe the most pressing issues that should be considered by your committee related to risk management, corporate liability, ethical compliance, and medical error prevention. What strategies would you adopt to minimize organizational exposure to risk in each of these areas?

Answer 1

RISK MANAGEMENT

The primary objective of risk management in hospital settings is to identify the areas of high risk and create strategies to eliminate such risks for prevention of any hazardous or unlikely events.

Risk management helps to mitigate harmful and deadly situations.

- hiring trained, professional staff

The important issues in risk management are

• Patient care related risks: patient care related risks include malpractices, medical data security, protection of patient from abuse, obtaining informed patient consent, nondiscrimination.
• Employee related risks : employee related risks include maintaining a safe work environment, avoiding occupational injury and illness, job satisfaction, identifying unprofessional and non competent staff.
• Property related risks : protecting the infrastructure and other medical equipments from fires and other natural disasters.

​Strategies to avoid such risks include :

• Hiring qualified professionals to avoid malpractices
• Ensuring quality services through well coordinated, competent team members
• Strict non discriminatory policies
• Following strict waste disposal and hygienic methods and sterilization protocols
• Evaluation of hiring process and screening of workers
• Timely service of medical equipments ​

CORPORATE LIABILITY

In corporate liability, the corporation or institute is responsible for any act legal or illegal performed by its employees. In healthcare system hospital is hold responsible for any action performed by its staff that harms or injures the patient.

The most pressing issues in corporate liability include higher of qualified worker, proper screening of workers, maintaining high quality standards and proper equipment functioning, taking proper actions against the guilty workers, providing reimbursements for ill practices

Strategies to deal with corporate liability includes :

• Proper screening of workers before appointment
• Hiring of qualified, licenced and accredited workers
• Proper supervision of workers
• Timely maintainance service of medical equipments
• Proper evaluation and reviewing of hiring processes, policies.

MEDICAL ERROR PREVENTION

Medical errors include errors comitted by the medical staff including physicians, nurse and paramedics that harms the health of patient.

The pressing issues include :

• Medical neglect
• Poor or wrong medical diagnosis
• Poor hygienic practices by staff leading to infection breakouts
• Errors in prescribing, administering and dispensing of meications.
• Errors in following properal procedural guidelines

Strategies to reduce medical errors include :

- hiring trained professional staff

- strict following of all treatment guidelines

- strict following of hygienic practices

- ensuring proper and clear communication between physicians and other team members to ensure proper flow of information avoiding errors.

ETHICAL COMPLIANCE

Ethical compliance is the abiding and adhering of healthcare professionals stricktly to laws and regulations. It helps to prtitect patient against any discrimination based on gender, caste or religion, promote quality healthcare seevices.