Risk management in healthcare is a complex set of clinical and administrative systems, processes, procedures, and reporting structures designed to detect, monitor, assess, mitigate, and prevent risks to patients. The numerous risk management practices and processes that occur in healthcare organizations are a response to The Institute of Medicine’s report entitled "To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System". The goal of risk management is to reduce errors and safeguard the healthcare organization from the financial stress of medical malpractice claims or insurance reimbursement denials.
Here are some key points about risk management in healthcare:
- Risk management is a critical function at healthcare organizations that helps ensure safe and trusted healthcare delivery to improve patient outcomes.
- Risk management requires the efforts of a complete, top-down interprofessional team, both in terms of implementing policies and practices, executing.
- Risk management professionals are a vital part of healthcare administration and help guide decision-makers in operations, finance, training, clinical protocols, and more.
- Risk managers are trained to identify, evaluate, and mitigate risks to patients, staff, and visitors. Insurance, claims management, event/incident management, patient safety, provider quality management, compliance, enterprise risk management, third-party risk management, and more all fall under the risk management umbrella.
- Risk management is becoming more complex than ever, and healthcare organizations have significantly reduced risk over the past decade by improving patient safety, quality, and care outcomes.
In summary, risk management in healthcare is a critical function that aims to reduce errors and safeguard healthcare organizations from the financial stress of medical malpractice claims or insurance reimbursement denials. It requires the efforts of a complete, top-down interprofessional team, and risk management professionals are a vital part of healthcare administration.
