Risk Management
QUESTION
The purpose of this assignment is to analyze how an organization’s quality and improvement processes contribute to its risk management program.
This assignment builds on the Risk Management Program Analysis – Part One assignment you completed in Topic 1 of this course.
Assume that the sample risk management program you analyzed in Topic 1 was implemented and is now currently in use by your health care employer/organization. Further assume that your supervisor has asked you to create a high‐level summary brief of this new risk management program to share with a group of administrative personnel from a newly created community health organization in your state who has enlisted your organization’s assistance in developing their own risk management policies and procedures.
Compose a 1,250‐1,500 word summary brief that expands upon the elements you first addressed in the Topic 1 assignment. In this summary brief, address the following points regarding your health care organization and its risk management program:
1-Explain the role of your organization’s MIPPA-approved accreditation body (e.g., JC, ACR, IAC) in the evaluation of your institution’s quality improvement and risk management processes.
2-Describe the roles that different levels of administrative personnel play in healthcare ethics and establishing or sustaining employer/employee-focused organizational risk management strategies and operational policies.
3-Illustrate how your organization’s risk management and compliance programs support ethical standards, patient consent, and patient rights and responsibilities.
4-Explain the legal and ethical responsibilities health care professionals face in upholding risk management policies and administering safe health care at your organization.
5-Relate how your organization’s quality improvement processes support and contribute to its overall journey to excellence.
Risk Management
ANSWER
Risk Management
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Course Name and Code
Inst5ructor’s Name
Date
Risk Management
Introduction
The American College of Radiology (ACR) is the MIPPA-approved accreditation body responsible for technological risk management. It manages risks associated with Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), Computed Tomography (CT), Positron Emission Tomography (PET), and nuclear-medicine exams (Silva, 2011). One of the goals of the ACR is to ensure the uniformity of quality standards provided by providers who deal with non-radiologic services such as orthopedists and cardiologists.
The ACR is a gold standard accreditation that deals with medical imaging. It assures patients of images of the highest quality, and safety. This is done by certifying that a healthcare organization meets the necessities for equipment, homoeopathic personnel, and quality guarantee. To get this certification, a rigorous inspection is carried out in imaging centers. The presence of ACR accreditation in our healthcare organization proves to patient, financiers and physicians who refer us that we are determined to provide the safest and highest possible quality of care (Silva, 2011). Hence, our organization is able to manage any technical risk.
The role of ACR in our organization
The ACR accrediting personnel who include administrative staff, physician supervisors, and technologists review the qualifications of healthcare practitioners of the facility to ensure they meet the relevant qualification of practice. They test the apparatus used in the facility to ensure their effective functionality, proper maintenance and ability to deliver quality results. They also review the images produced in MRI, CT scans and ultrasound carried out on patients in the facility to ensure clarity and detail. Another role is that of ensuring that medical imaging centers have appropriate quality control measures in place to promote patient safety and satisfaction. This is a top priority.
Roles of different levels administrative personnel in healthcare ethics, risk management strategies and operational policies
To maintain and enhance the quality of patient care, administrative staff like as managers, management staff, nursing management, and supervisors devise and execute continuous improvement plans. In order to foster a safety culture, all employees must strive toward the same goal. Thus, the safety culture of the administration is strengthened. For this reason, the medical administration carries out the following practices.
1. Promotion of workplace ethics.
Managerial engagement in public associations is encouraged by health care quality specialists, and a structured mechanism for reporting ethical problems is upheld (Hollnagel, Braithwaite, & Wears, 2014). It is the responsibility of health care professionals to ensure that the organization’s ethical culture is maintained and that patient involvement and peer support are encouraged.
2. Educating members of the staff on ethics
In order to keep employees up to date on the latest ethical standards, they need be constantly informed. Compassion for patients, family members, and other caregivers are all part of a good training program’s goal (Hollnagel, Braithwaite,& Wears, 2014).
3. Maintaining work place safety
Healthcare administrators have a responsibility to continuously monitor and develop rules to protect their personnel. Administrators should conduct frequent ethical audits to ensure that policies and procedures are being followed. Managers, administrators, and employees must all play a role in maintaining a high standard of ethical conduct in the workplace.
4. Effective communication
The health care unit’s Board of Management plays an important role in fostering hierarchical communication, which is essential for ethical decision-making. Organizational goals, purpose, vision, and values should be clearly communicated to all healthcare units (Ziegler, 2020). Health nurses should be informed in advance of any changes to their schedules. Customers are happier and employees are more likely to stay with companies that have a strong communication model in place.
5. Creation of a system-level policy and procedures.
System policy and system supervision should be developed by managers with interdisciplinary participation from all departments, and should be overseen by this committee. Pharmacists and nurses, together with biomedical engineers and other professionals in related fields, should come together to develop specifications for each area. During the yearly assessment process, each department’s managers are held accountable for their actions. Managers should be held accountable for the creation, evaluation, and amendment of policies (Ziegler, 2020).
How ACR supports ethical standards, patient consent, and patient rights and responsibilities.
Ethical standards in healthcare, patient consent and patients’ rights are supported by the risk management and compliance systems. In ACR’s attempt to maintain healthcare quality and maintain patient safety and satisfaction, employees are reminded of the importance of adhering to professional codes of behavior, for example maintaining patient confidentiality. They are not permitted to give out any information on their patients to anyone who isn’t authorized to see it (American Nurses Association, 2001). Both malpractice and carelessness are included in the warnings.
According to these initiatives, patients should be taken care of, not added problems by medical staff, thus avoiding medical errors. Informed consent is another topic that is addressed in these programs. Medical practitioners are tasked with informing patients about the treatment procedure, the dangers connected with it, and other intervention options (American Nurses Association, 2001). They are also tasked with emphasizing that the patient has the final say. These are some of the patients’ legal and ethical obligations. In order to make a full recovery, patients must also follow the instructions of the doctor. For example, they are responsible for making sure they take their prescribed medication on schedule. As a result, the programs completely support all ethical practices in the healthcare industry.
Legal and ethical responsibilities faced by healthcare professionals in upholding risk management policies and administering safe healthcare.
Patients’ confidentiality is one of the legal and ethical duties that health care practitioners have in these programs. HIPAA, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, has been followed by the professionals when it comes to disclosing patient information (Berlinger, 2016). As a result, they have not divulged any confidential patient information to anybody else. Consent that is based on full knowledge is the second duty. There has been a lot of discussion among the healthcare professionals in this organization about the many treatment options and how to best let patients make their own choices.
Additionally, the organization has taken care to combat malpractice and carelessness (Berlinger, 2016). Injuries to patients from medical equipment, prescription mistakes, and a lack of attention to a patient are just a few of the problems that health care providers have been working hard to prevent. In addition, health care providers ensure that everyone has access to treatment, regardless of their present financial situation. After preserving the patients’ lives, they provide the treatments they require and then follow up on financial difficulties. As a last point, all professionals are bound by the law to carry out their duty. Physician-assisted suicide, for example, can be performed by no one other than a qualified physician.
How the organization’s quality improvement processes support to its overall excellence journey.
In conclusion, quality improvement initiatives implemented by the organization have made a significant impact on its growth and the healthcare industry’s growth. When it comes to patient care and services, the company has a solid reputation. The organization’s success may be attributed in part to its effective use of risk management procedures. The ACR ensures professional handling of equipment since all personnel are educated, and all the machinery is effective and well maintained, producing quality results. It also ensures healthcare practitioners are careful when handling patients to maintain their safety and reduce risks. For instance, patients’ lives are saved or their conditions improved in emergency situations. There is no time to waste at the emergency department, and surgical cases are not kept waiting for long. Regular patients don’t have to stand in line for too long either. Health care providers have also been concerned about keeping hospitals from being connected with dangers.
For instance, the staff responsible for of cleaning cleans all areas using disinfectants to avoid hospital illnesses. The health workers are extremely careful while touching patients to avoid spreading illnesses. For instance, they are switching gloves periodically to protect themselves as well as patients from dangerous illnesses. The facility has also not recorded any medical error. Following these adjustments, the organization has a solid reputation before the society and the health board at large.
References
American Nurses Association. (2001). Code of ethics for nurses with interpretive statements. Nursesbooks. org.
Berlinger, N. (2016). Are Workarounds ethical?: managing moral problems in health care systems. Oxford University Press.
Hollnagel, E., Braithwaite, J., & Wears, R. L. (Eds.). (, 2014). Resilient health care. Surrey, England: Ashgate.
Silva, E. (2011). Accreditation and you. Journal of the American College of Radiology, 8(9), 600-601.
Ziegler, E. (2020). The integral role of nurses in primary care for transgender people: A qualitative descriptive study. Journal of Nursing Management.