Imagine a patient who went through abdominal surgery, and the surgical team unintentionally left an instrument in the abdomen. Days after surgery, the patient developed high fever and pain and had to return to the hospital. X-rays identified the instrument in the abdominal cavity, and the patient had to undergo a second surgical procedure. The most skilled care provider could make a mistake in the process of service delivery, and the consequences could devastate the patient. Risk management is about minimizing risk and harm to patients. It helps health organizations adopt an integrated approach to identify, group, and categorize risks and develop mitigating strategies applicable to different parts of the organization.
As the team leader, you are overseeing the risk management process. The first step is to establish the context. The purpose of this step is to define the organizations internal and external operating environments, the criteria for establishing risk, the level of risk, and the existing control systems.
For this assignment, please answer the following questions:
- What risk factors in healthcare refer to potential vulnerability due to a course of action?
- What factors are not considered an element of risk?
- What are important considerations for risk management in healthcare?
- Who benefits from risk management in healthcare?
- Attributes of an adverse event include what factors?
- Who is responsible for risk management in a healthcare organization?
- What are important considerations in the risk management process?
- What are sources of information for identifying risk?
- Characteristics of high-reliability organizations (HRO) do not include what factors?
- What is true of high-reliability organizations?
Submitting your assignment in APA format means, at a minimum, you will need the following:
- Title page: Remember the running head. The title should be in all capitals.
- Length: 3 pages minimum
- Abstract: This is a summary of your paper, not an introduction. Begin writing in third person.
- Body: This begins on the page following the title page and abstract page and must be double-spaced (be careful not to triple- or quadruple-space between paragraphs). The typeface should be 12-pt. Times Roman or 12-pt. Courier in regular black type. Do not use color, bold type, or italics, except as required for APA-level headings and references. The deliverable length of the body of your paper for this assignment is 5 pages. In-body academic citations to support your decisions and analysis are required. A variety of academic sources is encouraged.
- Reference page: References that align with your in-body academic sources are listed on the final page of your paper. The references must be in APA format using appropriate spacing, hanging indent, italics, and uppercase and lowercase usage as appropriate for the type of resource used. Remember, the Reference page is not a bibliography but a further listing of the abbreviated in-body citations used in the paper. Every referenced item must have a corresponding in-body citation.
