A policy or procedure is a set of rules that guide nurses in their work, and failure to follow them may put the institution and the patient at risk. The policies also help organizations to achieve their objectives. The main goal of these guidelines is to identify possible problems before they occur and make strategies on how to handle them. The procedures provide a hint on how the risk might look like. Having a rough idea of how the issues might emerge will help identify the early signs of its occurrence. Therefore, forming strategies on how to control the error will be easy. Well-outlined policies and processes offer an organization the foundation to evaluate how to move from its current position to its desired state. By summarizing the existing necessity, processes, interdependencies, controls, and risks, they can help identify upgrading opportunities. The policies help the administrators establish the direction of the business because they give a clear view of the institution’s principles and requirements.
Furthermore, most managers and inspectors consider policies to be vital functioning tools for an institution and anticipate examining them during the process of standard reviews and filings. The management will constantly pursue to comprehend and decide on organizational agreement with external and internal principles of the business. As such, guidelines, processes, and methods indicate a company’s current functioning position and its obligation to operative risk control and compliance. These written procedures and processes contain facts that convey data about technology, supply dependencies, existing processes, recognized risks, and managing ideas. Therefore, an institution can analyze present measures and processes to outline breaches or restrictions in capital, mechanization, transportations among units or zones, technology, or the capability to remediate process-related risks. Acquiring awareness of such limitations is the first step to eradicating inadequacies and weaknesses that may not have been noticed.
Key Risk Management Terms
The following are some of the terms used in risk management. Risk prevention is when an error is avoided, while risk reduction is the procedure followed to reduce the impact of an error. The two include reducing the frequency and also the possibilities of risks occurring in the future. Regulatory compliance is the process of adhering to the external and internal laws that govern health care practices. Patient safety is the procedure of ensuring that any medical errors or anything associated with severe effects does not affect patients.
An adverse event is an occurrence that is avoidable or non-preventable that can bring harm to the patient as a product of medical care. The event may arise due to the conditions in the hospital or through required life-giving interference. The occasion could have also caused the extended visit to hospitals, enduring harm or even death. A near miss is a situation that is not detrimental but can cause harm or ill-health.
Risk Categories and Risk Identification Methods
As the health field expands, so do the risks that threaten patients, doctors, hospitals, and other healthcare facilities across the world, and below are some of the dangers that occur. Cybercrime is a practice that is rampant due to the increased use of technology. Information about patients kept is broad, and fraud in medical identification is a major cyber problem in the health care system. For example, in 2015, Anthem paid for a data breach, and the information of about 79 million people was exposed (Alunge, 2020).
Environmental hazards are another threat, especially pollutants; they put both the patient and the health workers at risk. Through improper disposal of waste products, manufacturing plants can lead to an outburst and spread of bacteria, viruses, the dispersion of dust and gases. This risk threatens both the populations, especially those with weak immune systems and compromised health status. Neglect and misconduct is another risk that may cause harmful effects on a healthcare facility. For instance, forgetting to monitor a patient’s progress or operating on the wrong part of a patient’s body is malpractice. Taking long to attend to a patient who needs urgent attention is negligence.
For an organization to manage such risks, specific strategies are used as discussed. Environmental degradation seen can be curbed by setting policies aimed at protecting the environment. The manufacturing industries should dispose of waste products according to the requirements of the environment protection bodies. Incident reporting of any misconduct should be made, especially when patients are not served at the right time. A person in charge of the patient’s welfare should be employed to check on the feedback. To reduce cybercrimes, strong passwords should be used, and the software should be updated frequently. This will protect patient’s information from exposure.
A concurrent insurance policy should be adopted where two or more insurance policies cover the same risk. In case of risks such as fire, the organization can get better coverage. The accepted conduct of doctors should have adhered to, and cases such as operating the wrong patients should be avoided. Holding meetings with all the staff and sharing information on the current activities is crucial. Issues affecting the staff are discussed, and possible solutions are identified.
Another strategy is to uphold transparency, where the controlled flow of information within an institution causes less harm. Being accountable and transparent are almost the same, but the latter extends beyond the institution. However, it should be known that entrenched transparency between health workers and patients, within health workers themselves and broadly across the state, maybe profound. Furthermore, ensuring apparent departmental collaboration is also an integral approach. In addition to giving precise data that can update risk management strategies, excellent communication can also help incorporate risk-controlling practices into the everyday workflow—for example, equipping electronic records with an alert or message for healthcare workers, asking risk managers to revisit charts, and maintaining a continuous discussion based on protection. Others are frequently reporting, celebrating success, and seeking ideas from workers on improving the facility.
Forming a standardization procedure is a procedure, too; when a consistent process is established, the institution can inspect statistics through departments to comprehend better the general policy. Without coordination across the board, organizations run the risk of contrasting operations and miss the visibility that an enhanced dataset could provide. Assessing and monitoring the progress in an institution is a policy too. Evaluating impending risks instead of responding to present ones transfers a business into an awful situation (Staudt & Wagner, 2021). Recognize areas where disappointment is most likely to happen, and form guidelines to help lessen those risks. Create a timespan for this evaluation and how frequently the organization will study development and learn the effect of the chosen strategy. This regular examination steered through analyses, reviews or reports, gives perception on whether specific approaches and actions have aided in eliminating these threats or not.
Creating risk control prioritization is an average procedure in a risk management organization. By this view, healthcare institutions prioritize by knowing what occasions could arise, their possibility, and the measure of effect. Then, the risk directors formulate how the institution can minimize the impact and weigh the probable influences if those dangers cannot be controlled. Through this arrangement, risk controllers should also outline the commitment to prevent the risks and frequently assess if a recognized risk is likely. Some threats have characteristics in which they can be detected. For instance, a coding mistake can be recognized through reflective evaluation. Conflict within health care workers can be identified through open physical interaction that is done to ensure project team participation. Reduction of the number of patients seeking service from the hospital is one away that reveals malpractice or negligence. Suppose the number of patients given service in a hospital does not coincide with the amount of money the government contributes for their service. In that case, this is recognized as fraud in identification documents.
The Duty of the Risk Manager in Application and Compliance of the Program
The primary duty of a risk manager is to inform the organization about threat mitigation policies and processes. The expert creates risk alerts among workers by giving support and training within the organization. Managers also plan and implement a general risk control procedure for the institution, which includes examining the economic effect on the business when the menace occurs. Proper evaluation of the institution’s previous handling of mishaps, comparing it with the impending problem and the methods to handle the problem, would assist in averting these issues. The role manager should have a deeper understanding of the effects of the various risks and be able to come out with strategic plans to avoid such occurrences (Urbański et al., 2019). With that, the manager would have made a practical impact on controlling the risks.
Application of Risk Management Principles in Scientific Incident
Risk Description
Potential risk includes an error in patient identification, medication, and privacy violation. The patient may give a false identity and make it difficult for follow-up. Privacy, such as revealing the type of diseases patients suffers, can impact them negatively. Wrong medication can lead to worsening the patient’s condition and can cause side effects.
The healthcare field endlessly experiences changes as new technology is advanced and applied to patient care, organization operations, and daily procedures. As a result, cyber terrorizations continue to threaten the privacy of patients. The main problem arises from electronic records of personally identifiable information. Because internal workers and any permitted personnel to access this information, the data become exposed to cybercriminals. Thus, this is a potential that should be noted and controlled.
Risk Implications
Cyber threats cause problems to the patients, health workers, and the health facility at large. Cyber threats may deny authority to access locked entries or close health-related organizations. Data gaps within a security network can range far beyond tarnishing your reputation and adding legal fees to endangering patient’s security (Powell, 2020). Cyber threats risk alteration of hospital information which may lead to unfair treatment of the patient. Cyber threats corrupt the hospital data, which may lead to difficulty in following a patient’s progress.
Risk Elimination
To reduce cyber threats, risk managers should uphold proper technology habits. They should inform the employees on the current data and provide them with proper practice on how to handle the computers. Install virus-free programs to ensure that health care systems are adequately protected in the best way possible. Anything that is linked to the internet should have a firewall. There should be protective measures to ensure that information shared with health workers by the phone is secure.
References
Alunge, R. (2020). Breach of security vs. personal data breach: effect on EU data subject notification requirements. International Data Privacy Law. Web.
Powell, L. (2020). How data can be the lingua franca for security and IT. Network Security, 2020(6), 6-7. Web.
Staudt, Y., & Wagner, J. (2021). Assessing the performance of random forests for modeling claim severity in collision car insurance. Risks, 9(3), 53. Web.
Urbański, M., Haque, A. U., & Oino, I. (2019). The moderating role of risk management in project planning and project success: evidence from construction businesses of Pakistan and the UK. Engineering Management in Production and Services, 11(1):23-35. Web.