Healthcare Risk Control

Risk and Quality Management Strategies 4

Executive Summary

 VOLUME 2
July 2009

Key Recommendations
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Assess current activities in risk management and quality improvement to evaluate their effectiveness in addressing overlap. Establish a structure to ensure that patient care activities are addressed in a coordinated manner involving risk management and quality improvement functions. Seek legal counsel to ensure that the structure for risk management and quality improvement activities maximizes legal protections granted by state and federal statutes while allowing for the flow of information. Align risk management and quality improvement plans with the strategic goals of the organization. Educate stakeholders on the role of risk management and quality improvement functions. Design systems to coordinate and streamline data collection, analysis, monitoring, and evaluation.

Risk Management, Quality
Improvement, and Patient Safety
In the past, the risk management and quality improvement functions often operated separately in healthcare organizations and individuals responsible for each function had different lines of reporting—an organizational structure that further divided risk management and quality improvement. Today, risk management and quality improvement efforts in healthcare organizations are rallying behind patient safety and finding ways to work together more effectively and efficiently to ensure that their organizations deliver safe and high-quality patient care.

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WHAT HRC FOUND
Several initiatives in the last decade have helped to forge and improve an alliance between risk management and quality improvement. These include Joint Commission standards for patient safety, the federal government’s value-based purchasing provisions, and privatesector efforts to enhance healthcare quality.