Risk Management in Healthcare: Strategies for Improved Safety - Essay Sample

Introduction

There are various risks that need to be managed in healthcare to improve the safety of both the patients and health professionals. There are many patients that visit health facilities with various diseases that are a contagious posing risk to health professionals. Healthcare management means that the healthcare services and the facility is managed in a manner that is safe for all the stakeholders that use the healthcare facilities. The risk management I did by implementing various strategies that implement the safety of healthcare. Risk managers are responsible for identifying health risks and developing the strategies that are implemented to eliminate the risks. The paper evaluates the patient safety health risk management plan.

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The type of risks of patient safety entails the safety of the patients while they are at the health facility getting treatment. There are various risks that the patient is exposed to, such as patient falls among admitted patients, and the risks might cause injury or prolong the period that the patient is supposed to get treatment at the health facility (Kavaler & Spiegel, 2003). The patient safety risk plan helps the health facilities come up with strategies that guarantee patient safety when they are within the health facilities. The rationale of patient safety healthcare risk management plan is because of the risks that the patients face, such as being exposed to the danger of contracting other diseases while in the health facility.

There are various steps that management can take to improve patient safety when they visit health facilities. The strategies vary depending on the services offered and the environments. The following strategies can be implemented to improve patient safety:

• Separating patients depending on the disease the patient is suffering from ensuring patients with different diseases do not interact, reducing the chances of transmission from one patient to the other.
• The hospital facilities need to be upgraded to improve the safety of patients by restricting external visits where people outside the hospital bring risks to the patients.
• Improving the skills of the healthcare professional to ensure the patients get the right treatment for the diseases they are suffering from (Kavaler & Spiegel, 2003).

The management of health facilities has the responsibility of ensuring the strategies are implemented and maintained to maintain patient safety. The strategies can be implemented in different kinds of health facilities offering a wide range of services.

There are laws that guide the operations of health facilities in terms of the requirements that they must meet for the health facility to be allowed to operate. The health facilities are supposed to maintain all the standards during their operations (Albolino & Costantini, 2017). The health professionals are required to maintain their code of conduct that ensures they remain professional. The laws require health professionals to be responsible for all their actions in the treatment of the patients where they are responsible for all actions that they take while treating patients. The laws are implemented by the center of medicare and Medicaid services agencies that ensure the patients get the best medical care as possible.

The objective of health care risk management programs is to promote the quality of patient care where the health facilities and the services offered have a maintained quality, which in turn reduces the risks from the patients (Albolino & Costantini, 2017). When the patient has the confidence of the health facilities and services offered, they are likely to heal quickly. Different stakeholders collaborate to implement the strategies that improve the safety of the patients. The administration of the health facility is always in charge of implementing the steps that assure patient safety, including oversight, to ensure the safety standards are maintained.

One of the agencies that regulate the administration of safe healthcare is the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). This is a government agency that supports research that promotes quality healthcare (Schulte, 2012). There is an established system with indicators that determine whether a health facility meets the set standards. The quality indicators are subdivided into In-patient quality Indicator, Prevention Quality Indicator, Patient Safety Indicators, as well as Pediatric Quality Indicators. The Prevention Quality Indicator is used in identifying hospital admissions that may have avoided by providing outpatient care. Although the outpatients may be provided with high-quality care, there may be cases of return visits.

The second agency regulating the healthcare is the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), whose objective is to improve access to health for people who have no insurance covers, the vulnerable, and those who are isolated (Schulte, 2012). HRSA facilitates the provision of healthcare for millions of millions of people each year, thus making it a significant agency to collaborate with as a healthcare provider. The agency provides funding that helps in providing primary care services at the health centers as well as funding training of the primary health care workers.

Inpatient Quality Care involves the quality of healthcare services that in-patients get. Surgical procedures and lack of care for the patients have led to an increase in mortality rates (Schulte, 2012). The third subcategory of the quality indicator is the Patient Safety Indicators, which are primarily concerned with the mortality cases whose causes are unavoidable. The final indicator is the Pediatric Quality Indicators, which are concerned with different aspects of healthcare regarding the pediatric population.

An effective patient safety plan should conform to the standards and requirements of the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act (MIPPA). As per MIPPA guidelines, all the providers to have qualified personnel, use equipment that is of good quality and are functioning as requires, promote the safety of patients as well as the staff and promote quality assurance and control (Congress, 2018). For a health provider to be accredited by MIPPA, therefore, the medical staff, supervising physicians, and the medical directors have to be qualified. Improving the patient safety plan is, therefore, complies with MIPPA standards. After the accreditation, the facility will is required to renew and meet all the set requirements before the deadline.

There is a room for improvement of the health care risk management program to make it better in terms of protecting the interests of the patients and healthcare professionals that take care of the patients (Albolino & Costantini, 2017). My recommendations include reviewing the existing laws to cater for the changes that have occurred in the provision of healthcare as the world becomes digitized. The health facilities will have to comply with the new laws hence enhancing the safety of the patients. The other recommendation is for the health facilities to be reviewed regularly to ensure they meet the set standards. All the healthcare stakeholders also have to work in collaboration to ensure the patients have a good environment at the health facility.

References

Kavaler, F., & Spiegel, A. D. (2003). Risk management in health care institutions: a strategic approach. Jones & Bartlett Learning.

Albolino, S., & Costantini, M. (2017). Patient Safety, Ergonomics Risk Management, and Clinical. Perioperative Care of the Elderly: Clinical and Organizational Aspects, 321.

Schulte, M. F. (2012). Healthcare delivery in the USA: An introduction. CRC Press. Retrieved from https://www.routledge.com/Healthcare-Delivery-in-the-USA-An-Introduction-Second-Edition/Schulte/p/book/9781439877944

Congress, U. S. (2018). Medicare Improvement for Patients and Providers Act of 2008. Retrieved from https://www.ncoa.org/centerforbenefits/mippa/