Hospitals are considered places in society where patients can feel safe and looked after. This is why mitigating unnecessary risk is a high priority in healthcare organizations. Rules and regulations around risk in healthcare are constantly being updated and reviewed to ensure staff and patient safety.
As standard, there should be steps that healthcare risk managers should comply in ensuring that the surroundings around all areas are in sufficient condition. Here are some best practices that all hospitals should consider to help mitigate risk in the healthcare workplace.
Be proactive with risk assessments
Rather than putting in place measures after a risk has occurred, risk managers should be proactive in identifying the risk before it occurs. For existing processes and products, they should analyse the current procedures in place and scale them based on possible risk and the probability that a risk could occur. The scores taken from the risk assessment should help managers to identify areas where risk is probable and how it can be reduced.
Similarly, any new practices that are being considered to put into place should be put through review and analysis before it’s put in place. What risks are possible and would it be safe to put in place considering how much of a risk it could cause?
Hardwire risk-mitigating procedures
Low risks need to be maintained across the board and consistency should be applicable so no practice is better off than the other. To ensure this, any procedures that are considering risk friendly should be hardwired for every healthcare practice.
Staff members should be trained up on these services and be provided with the necessary assistance to continue this in their workflow. Whether it’s making alerts in electronic healthcare systems or applying messages to digital records. Spontaneous revisions with staff of the practices can also help to ensure that all staff members are understanding.
Prioritise specific tasks
There are many tasks that risk managers have to consider when evaluating risk in hospitals. This means that some tasks have to be prioritised over others if they’re considered a higher risk. It’s important that they’re able to prioritise some over others and create a manageable workload for themselves.
Establish a risk management culture
With the previous point in mind, it means that risk managers can’t be everywhere at one time and cover all bases when it comes to risk. Creating a risk-free culture with staff and surrounding parties can help them with their task.
If a culture can be created whereby people in the environment can feel comfortable reporting risk and highlighting areas that could be potential risks, it can make their job easier. It also means that there is more awareness of reducing risk.
Final thoughts
It doesn’t matter whether your practice specialises cosmetic surgery or medicine, the levels of risk still remain the same and should be kept as a high priority. Where possible, ensure everyone is playing their part when it comes to mitigating risk and keeping the workplace a safer place.
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