Risk and Quality Management Assessment Summary

Overview of the organization

FastMed is an urgent care facility that provides direct services to patients with injuries or other less severe conditions that do not require an emergency department (ED). The facility operates several walk-in clinics in North Carolina. They provide services for non-threatening illnesses and injuries without an appointment system which is common in many hospitals. Most of the clinics operate between 8 AM to 8 PM, from Monday to Friday, and from 8 AM to 4 PM during the weekend. The urgent services include:

• Injuries, orthopedics, and physicals for adults and children
• Mild and moderate health conditions
• Vaccinations: including influenza shots for adults and children
• Tests and management of acute and chronic diseases
• Sexual health care (FastMed Urgent Care, 2015)

Purpose of risk and quality management

Healthcare facilities are always trying to improve the quality of services to protect and improve the health of those entrusted to their care. Risk management and quality improvement programs focus on enhancing patient safety and improving the overall functions of a healthcare facility. Risk management programs focus on the identification and mitigation of uncertainties that threaten the health operations and health of patients. The programs focus on prevention, correction, documentation, education, and implementation of interdepartmental coordination strategies. According to Sollecito and Johnson (2013), quality management programs provide frameworks for the management of healthcare products and services. Additionally, they focus on improving the financial, clinical, and operational initiatives that sustain healthcare operations.

Key concepts

The framework that integrates risk and quality management programs is essential in improving organizational standards. Some of the key concepts in the risk and management strategy include:

• An interconnected framework that incorporates the facility’s improvement strategy to its core principles
• To develop a coordinated program with a committee that comprises representatives from all the facility’s departments.
• Strengthen a legal defense posture to address all potential adverse effects
• Initiate regular training programs to empower the personnel with risk mitigation skills and quality improvement
• Invest in risk mitigation mechanisms and products that are required for quality improvement.
• Reevaluate the employee competencies and talents to address poor compliance and missed opportunities

Steps for identifying and managing risks

The management concepts defined above focus on the identification and management of risks. According to Carroll (2009), risk management is a process that follows a standard structure with an arrangement of priorities to generate a comprehensive outcome. Risk management follows five steps.

• Identification and analysis of loss exposures
• Consideration of alternative risk techniques
• Selection of the most appropriate risk management approach
• implementation of programs
• Monitoring the selected programs to enhance their sustainability

Identification and analysis of risk exposures

The step focuses on the identification and analysis of risks. Risk identification is essential to understanding the number of threats to a facility’s operations (Carroll, 2009). The identification process can be conducted using patient feedback reports, generic occurrence screening, and incident reports. Additionally, casualty levels and external surveys provide essential data that can be used to assess a facility’s exposure to risks. Risk analysis is conducted after the completion of the identification process. The analysis process involves the evaluation of an incident’s severity and the causes and effects of the risk on the present and future operations.

Consideration of alternative risk techniques

The alternative risk techniques select the appropriate risk treatment strategy for risk control or risk financing. Risk financing is a correction procedure that pays for the losses incurred while risk control is a preventive strategy that establishes mitigation structures against possible losses.

Risk Control

This can be implemented in various ways:

• Loss prevention is one of the techniques that identify frequency of risks and focuses on reducing the losses
• Exposure avoidance addresses risks by eliminating the principal causes of damages and losses
• Loss reduction focuses on the most vulnerable resources in an institution and establishes preventive guidelines to reduce the severity of damages
• Separation of loss exposures focuses on distributing risks across different activities and resources of an organization. This approach ensures that the risks affect only a particular activity instead of the entire organization.

Risk Financing

The process focuses on providing a funding strategy for all the losses that are not addressed by the risk control techniques. The following techniques are essential in financing losses.

Risk-retention is one of the strategies that estimates the potential losses from a given risk and reserves finances to cover the consequences of the presumed losses.

Risk transfer involves the transfer of the financial obligation for a loss to a third financing agent. The process mainly involves using insurance firms to cover risk consequences.

Selection of the most appropriate risk management strategy

The process evaluates the appropriateness of all risk management techniques with respect to the underlying risks (National Patient Safety Agency, 2007). In most cases, organizations chose to use either the risk control or risk financing technique. However, the exposure rate and frequency of losses can compel an organization to combine both methods.

Implementation of the selected method

The step involves documentation and implementation of the selected technique. The process is essential because it involves a thorough analysis of organizational goals and operations. Additionally, it requires the approval of the organization’s management team. Interdepartmental coordination is required to create a framework that fosters integration and safety.

Monitoring the selected programs to enhance its sustainability

Risk management should be a sustainable program that improves the quality of the present and future operations. The last step evaluates the effectiveness and sustainability of the mitigation techniques using assessment and feedback reports. The process also involves the selection of an implementation team to oversee all technical and procedural requirements.

Risks in urgent care centers

The urgent care facilities are exposed to many risks that are caused by environmental and professional conditions. The risks expose healthcare professionals and patients to multiple threats by affecting the quality of products and services.

1. Safety and security risks exist in the physical environment of an organization. The risks arise from the failures of physical structures but can also emerge from intentional causes. Some of the intentional causes of the risks include violence and unrestricted access to medication. Security and safety risks have direct effects on the health of patients, employees, and other individuals accessing the facility.
2. Medical equipment risks are described as the uncertainties that exist in the processes of testing and maintenance of the equipment. Additionally, they represent the contingencies faced by the organization when the equipment fails. The failure of the equipment can cause serious implications in the diagnoses and testing procedures of patients.
3. Utility risks are defined as the uncertainties that exist in the testing and inspection of operational components. Additionally, the risks include the consequences of mismanaging disruptions and airborne contaminants. These conditions can affect the patients’ health and lead to litigations from health inspectors.

Internal and external factors that affect quality

Government policies establish an external influence on the operational and professional standards for urgent care facilities. One of the policies is the national patient safety goals (NPSG) that provide safety standards for addressing some of the problematic areas in healthcare. The organizational structure is an internal factor that influences the quality of medical resources and the operational standards of an organization. A weak organizational structure affects the delivery of healthcare services and establishes weak risk management strategies. An organization’s financial capacity is an internal factor that influences the quality of products and services. Finances are essential resources that can be used to mitigate or correct risk consequences. Additionally, quality services are directly related to the availability of funds.

Organizational goals

The organization has specific long-term and short-term goals that are summarized in its mission statement. These goals focus on improving the quality of healthcare services by addressing some of the current and projected patient needs.

Long-Term Goals

• The organization wants to be the leading urgent care facility in the provision of high-quality services to its patients.
• The organization also wants to be among the most diverse urgent care facilities by increasing the number of services in the urgent unit.
• The other long-term goal is to create a culture of affordable and convenient urgent care.

Short-Term Goals

• The organization aims at improving the flexibility of operation hours. It will provide an “open-when-you-need-us” environment.
• The organization also focuses on addressing the quality concerns raised by some of its clients. Customers have been submitting their feedback reports using an online platform that was established by the company.
• The other goal is to increase the number of clinics in its areas of operation.

Policies

The risk management strategy will develop the following policies to improve the quality of services and mitigate risks.

1. The first policy will create awareness among the management concerning the risks facing the organization. The establishment of a risk management committee will support the awareness process. This team will plan, design, and execute the risk and quality management strategy.
2. The second policy will focus on creating education programs for the personnel. The programs will introduce some creative and practical strategies that will reduce risks. The process is expected to empower employees with relevant skills on safety, security, inspection, and protection of patients’ interests.
3. The last policy will focus on implementing the NPSG standards of patient safety. This policy will facilitate the recognition of the company by the accreditation bodies. Additionally, it will establish a culture of quality that will be essential to realizing the long-term goals (Agarwal, 2010).

Relationship between risk management and quality improvement

The two programs are interrelated because the failure of organizational structures leads to risks and inefficiencies (Perkins, 2011). Urgent care facilities require risk management and quality improvement strategies to protect the lives of patients. Additionally, the two programs enhance an organization’s capability to comply with the accreditation standards and improve the quality of healthcare delivery. The programs are essential in providing assessment criteria in regards to standards, accreditation, and policies.

References

Agarwal, R. (2010). A Guideline for Quality Accreditation in Hospitals. Web.

Carroll, R. L. (2009). Risk management handbook for health care organizations. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

FastMed Urgent Care. (2015). Urgent Care: FastMed Urgent Care – Walk-in clinics right in your neighborhood. Web.

National Patient Safety Agency. (2007). Healthcare risk assessment made easy. Web.

Perkins, E. (2011). Linking Quality Management and Risk Management. Web.

Sollecito, W. A., & Johnson, J. (2013). McLaughlin and Kaluzny’s Continuous Quality Improvement in health care. Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett.