Question

Risk management and quality healthcare are interrelated. Healthcare managers and service provides strive to provide quality service. Advocates encourage application of enterprise risk management (ERM) and new information technologies for greater results.

• Discuss the importance of ERM as one innovative strategy that healthcare managers would apply to broaden and institutionalize risk management in the health organization.
• Share any personal experiences on with ERM.

How are emerging technologies facilitating the reduction in patient data errors, medical coding errors, and access to patient records in risk management in healthcare organizations?

Answer 1

The first phase of an enterprise risk management (ERM) program is the identification of risks. Accurate identification is essential to a proactive and effective ERM function. The authors identified a lack of such risk identification in the literature and in practical cases when interviewing the chief risk officers from healthcare organizations. A risk inventory specific to healthcare organizations that includes detailed risk scenarios and risk impacts currently does not exist. Thus, the objective of this research is to develop an enterprise risk inventory for healthcare organizations to create a common understanding of how each type of risk impacts a healthcare organization.

Technology has become an integral part of medicine today. The right technology can assist with increased efficiency, improved quality, and reduced costs. Some of the many advantages technology can provide include the facilitation of communication between clinicians, improving medication safety, reducing potential medical errors, increasing access to medical information, and encouraging patient-centered care. The following are just a few ways technology is helping to improve patient safety.

1.Facilitates Communication Between Clinicians — Often in a patient’s medical journey, multiple healthcare professionals are involved in their care. This can dramatically increase the potential for miscommunication or error. Communication failures are one of the most common factors that contribute to the occurrence of adverse events. EHRs are designed to help reduce those errors by compiling and maintaining all of the patient’s health information into one easily accessible record.

2.Reduces Medication Error — Prescribing errors are another common medical error that can potentially lead to serious complications. Electronic prescribing can help reduce prescription errors by allowing clinicians to send prescriptions electronically to the pharmacy. Medical alerts, clinical flags, and reminders are also ways technology can help reduce medication errors and improve patient safety.

3.Provides Access To Information — Many serious medication errors are the result of clinicians not having sufficient information about the patient or drug. Information technology has drastically improved the access to reference information. A large range of drug-reference information is now available for hand-held devices, and clinicians are able to quickly access textbooks, databases, and other medical references online.

4.Increases Patient-Centered Care — Encouraging patients to be more involved in their care is important for many reasons including increased compliance and patient satisfaction. Technology helps contribute to patient-centered care by fostering communication between providers and patients via online portals, text messaging, and email. It also increases access to information such as online medical records, which can improve self-monitoring and patient convenience.

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