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This is an overview of the struggle risk managers face today to be proactive rather than reactive in their approach to patient safety, risk reductions, claims management, compliance and complaints. Although difficult to achieve, a proactive approach to risk management and patient safety has a value to the entire facility. Each facility differs in the risk management process but all systems and facilities can implement a proactive approach and process.
Keywords: risk management; proactive; reactive; claim reduction; patient safety; staff education
Risk management varies from health care system to health care system as well as from facility to facility within the same system. Risk management and the struggle to be proactive versus reactive is a struggle that affects everyone, including the staff nurse, the administration, and the patients. Part of the struggle is the difficulty in identifying processes that put the patients, staff, and facility at risk. The complexity of risk management is caused by the unique needs of each facility, the different treatments offered, as well as the different staff members. However, one thing that remains constant is the struggle to provide a proactive system to increase patient safety and staff education and decrease exposure to liability.
What is meant by proactive versus reactive struggle is the difficulty with trying to identify the areas of practice that leave the facility and staff exposed to liability. When an adverse event occurs that results in an untoward outcome, an investigation must ensue immediately, thereby causing a reactive action. After the investigation, the facility recognizes that the untoward outcome could have been prevented only if the broken process was identified earlier. In addition to adverse events, a risk manager must also react to lawsuits, compliance to processes, and incompetence.
Contrary to being reactive, a risk manager will strive to be proactive. The benefit of a proactive approach is the ability to deal with issues before they reach the patient, thus preventing an adverse event, patient injury, and liability. This type of approach not only prevents patient harm, but also assists staff with understanding processes. The staff then has the foundational knowledge, allowing them to respond to similar situations. Another benefit with a proactive approach is that most issues get resolved early by identifying process issues, thus...