Risk management programs are essential to any hospital. While it is known that humans will make mistakes, it is imperative that risk managers do what is necessary to assist the health care workers in providing quality care for the patients. A good risk manager will accomplish this task while minimizing risks to the patients, health care staff, and the organization.
Risk Manager’s Role
The purpose of a risk management program is to reduce the likelihood of errors that are costly to an organization in terms of damage, discomfort, disability, or distress to an individual, as well as limit financial loss the organization (Moss, 1995). The risk manager needs to accomplish this while contributing to the quality of patient care. Additionally, …show more content…
This approach is also explained by Carroll (2009). This model considers the sharp end to be the health care workers and the blunt end to be the hospital administration. The health care workers are affected by the decisions, policies, and regulations set forth by the hospital administration, which may place stress on the health care workers. An appropriate coping mechanism might be to notify senior management (Carroll, 2009). However, if the decision of the hospital administration was pay the health care workers a salary that was not competitive, and this led to shortages of workers or less experienced workers, notification of senior management may not be the reaction.
A third approach is the “Swiss cheese model”. This model was developed by James Reason (Carroll, 2009). Reason (2000, March 18) describes this model as each defense layer is like a slice of Swiss cheese, containing many holes but when stacked the holes are covered by another slice of cheese. However, the holes in each defense layer shift, and continue to open and close. Any one hole would not normally cause a bad outcome. It is when several holes line up that a bad outcome can occur (Reason, 2000, March …show more content…
The American Society for Healthcare Risk Management (2006, January) explains concerns and complaints of patients represent not just exposures to loss, but rather, they also present key opportunities to improve satisfaction. They also can increase market share, increase visits and the hospital’s good reputation in the community. Patients are less likely to initiate malpractice claims when they are satisfied with the care provided by the hospital (American Society for Healthcare Risk Management, 2006,
Risk Manager’s Role
The purpose of a risk management program is to reduce the likelihood of errors that are costly to an organization in terms of damage, discomfort, disability, or distress to an individual, as well as limit financial loss the organization (Moss, 1995). The risk manager needs to accomplish this while contributing to the quality of patient care. Additionally, …show more content…
This approach is also explained by Carroll (2009). This model considers the sharp end to be the health care workers and the blunt end to be the hospital administration. The health care workers are affected by the decisions, policies, and regulations set forth by the hospital administration, which may place stress on the health care workers. An appropriate coping mechanism might be to notify senior management (Carroll, 2009). However, if the decision of the hospital administration was pay the health care workers a salary that was not competitive, and this led to shortages of workers or less experienced workers, notification of senior management may not be the reaction.
A third approach is the “Swiss cheese model”. This model was developed by James Reason (Carroll, 2009). Reason (2000, March 18) describes this model as each defense layer is like a slice of Swiss cheese, containing many holes but when stacked the holes are covered by another slice of cheese. However, the holes in each defense layer shift, and continue to open and close. Any one hole would not normally cause a bad outcome. It is when several holes line up that a bad outcome can occur (Reason, 2000, March …show more content…
The American Society for Healthcare Risk Management (2006, January) explains concerns and complaints of patients represent not just exposures to loss, but rather, they also present key opportunities to improve satisfaction. They also can increase market share, increase visits and the hospital’s good reputation in the community. Patients are less likely to initiate malpractice claims when they are satisfied with the care provided by the hospital (American Society for Healthcare Risk Management, 2006,