Risk Management in HealthCare (Essay Sample)

FINAL PAPER ASSIGNMENT DHA 805 FALL TERM-2022 Risk Management in HealthCare Student Name Institutional Affiliations Instructor Date MEMORANDUM Date: 25th October 2022 TO: The Hospital Management Board From: Your Name, Middle-Level Executive Through: The Hospital CEO SUBJECT: Assessing the Risks Associated with Closing or Continuing to Operate Two of Our Clinics – the Referral-Based Radiology and the Wound - Care Center Executive Summary Introduction Risk management entails analytical processes and practices which are put in place to identify risk factors as well as implementing particular procedures in order to address such risks. When it comes to risk management in healthcare, the stakes are significantly high because risk management in healthcare could simply mean the difference between life and death. Thus, risk management in healthcare is the process of finding out the threats which could easily harm the organization, the staff, patients and any other personnel (APPLEGATE, 2014). In healthcare, risk management is narrowed to identify, assess and mitigate the risks which a certain cause of action could pose to the personnel in healthcare. The thrust of this memo is to assess the risks which are associated with the closure of two out of five operational clinics as a middle-level executive officer. The operational five clinics include: a walk-in orthopedic, referral-based radiology, labor-and delivery, wound care center and locked in-patient pediatric facility. The two clinic which will be closed are the radiology center and wound-care facility. Our facility has also suffered a loss of 15% of trained health-care providers who are inclusive of physicians, nurses as well as licensed personnel. 1 The risks of continuing to offer the services with 15% less staff Operating with 15% less staff is plaguing the healthcare organization into staffing shortage whose consequences or risks can be dire. The risks of staffing shortage have impacts spanning from the well-being of the staff, outcomes of patients as well as affecting the hospital bottom line. Running this hospital with 15% staff means that there will be shortage not only of the nursing officers but also of the physicians as well as licensed personnel who should be very instrumental in ensuring the productivity of the workplace (Bohmer, Bradley and Kindred, 2009). 15% shortage means that the hospital is operating at a risk of compromising the care of patients, unduly overburdening the existing staff as well as excessive financial costs which will exploit the patients. Shortage of nurses and physicians will also lead to the risk of low nurse-to-patient ratios and similarly low physician-to-patient ratios which will endanger and compromise the medical attention which patients are entitled to. There will be longer shifts of operation for the staff which is in operation. These long shifts will result into stress compounding the effects again to compromised medical care. Apart from undermining the quality of care which patients receive, injury and fatigue will result which will contribute to burnouts. Nurses are usually instrumental in detecting early indicators of patients’ complications as well as stopping the worsening of health situations. The shortage will then mean that there will be the risk of losing more lives. Low nurse-to-patient ratios will result into readmissions to the hospital hence long hours of bed-stay which will result into a crisis (Rosenblatt and Jain, 2017). . The departure of the overworked staff and the resultant stress is not an option in this case also. Additionally, this turnover of the hospital staff will be too expensive for the hospital. Shortage of licensed staff also means that the hospital will suffer from poor working conditions and unsafe operating environment. The risks of staffing shortage have compounding effects which all settle to compromised healthcare and resultant deaths. 2 The benefits of continuing to offer the services of each clinic From a general perspective, offering the services of each clinic is very helpful. The hospital will stand out to benefit from loyalty from every one vising the center. Running each clinic means also there will be increased profits, better recommendations from satisfied patients who get quality services from the healthcare as well as an enhanced public image of the healthcare facility. The Radiology and Wound-Care centers are very important for the hospital. If each clinic is operational then this means that there would be improved diagnosis as well as treatment of injuries and illnesses in the hospital. However due to understaffing, two clinics may suffer closure. There benefits of having the services of each of these two clinics in this hospital cannot be overemphasized (West and Ashiya, 2004). First, there are tangible benefits of continuing to offer services of the referral-based Radiology in the hospital. The Hospital offers services in radiology technology including MRI, CT and Ultra Sound services. A progression in offering the radiology services would remain very beneficial to the healthcare center and to the patients even more. Radiology services will eliminate the demand for exploratory surgeries, helps to determine when the patient is in need of operational surgery, it is important in aiding diagnostics and management of different body conditions, interventional radiology means less risk, less time of stay and shorter time for patient recovery. Further radiology services means that the hospital will have proper guidance to attend to conditions such as stroke and heart complications as well as aiding in screening for diseases such as cancer. Radiology clinic means that the hospital will be able to detect some diseases early and recommend treatment. The use of CT means the hospital can maintain a quick detailed visualization of the inside body eliminating the need for actual surgeries (Wall ST., 2008). MRI is able to give detailed of internal body tissues for accurate analysis. Ultrasound service means that the hospital can continue to monitor pregnancies and offer advice as appropriate. Secondly, there are also benefits of continuing the services of the Wound-care center clinic: The healthcare facility is able to give proper evaluations and prescribe the necessary treatments for wounds which are chronic if the service continues in the facility. Cleaning, diagnosing as well as dressing the wounds for casualties in the hospital are better managed in the wound-care canter. Wounds are able to heal with no microbial infections. The wound-care could easily detect type of wound and likely infections and recommend appropriate out-patient care depending on age,, blood circulation, nutrition and if there is any other disease (Rosenblatt and Jain, 2017). The continual of the services of each clinic will encourage an integrated health care plan is very beneficial since such a plan is more cost effective in the long run; the integration of services is simpler and even convenient for the healthcare center and the patients. The integrated service means better staff engagement and drive. 3 The risks of transferring non-physician personnel from the clinics to be closed to those that will remain open, and an assessment of the training challenges/risks of using inexperienced staff in the new clinics The hospital is shutting down the radiology and wound-care centers. It would be risky to transfer common staff from the closed clinics to those which will remain open. Such a practice can pose the risk of internally transferring underperformers which is likely to create the problem when such underperformers are discharged or disciplined by arguing that their underperformance elsewhere couldn’t be as bad. Such a transfer can be perceived as a punishment since the clinics they are occupying are more demanding. For instance, locked in-patient pediatric and labor delivery suites are more strenuous. Stagnation is another risk in that internal transfers could limit new applications (Coulon et.al, 2016). Resentment among other staff may occur if they view such transfers as promotions causing disengagements from daily duties. Further there are training challenges or the risks which are associated with using inexperienced staff in the new clinics. In healthcare, things are fast-paced and there is always high influx of patients seeking medical attention which makes training to be tough. Healthcare specialists are busy and trapped for time thus the available training time may not suffice the need of having well equipped staff. Further, with the prevalence of stress and burnout in healthcare, most members of the staff are struggling and overwhelmed with a poor-life balance and thus they may feel disconnected to sit in a hour-long training seminar (RICE& ZEGART, 2018). Similarly shifting the inexperienced staff to the new clinics will pose as a crisis because the inexperienced staff will likely get sick or injured during work time due to unsafe equipment, inadequate training on safety, inadequate supervision, they are more ready on taking risks, there is pressure to deliver more in short durations as well as stressful conditions in healthcare. All these pose risks not only to the inexperienced staff but also to the patients and to the hospital which is likely to suffer poor service delivery. Another personnel problem would be too little physician-patient time. This results from the demand from rushed interactions due to heavy workloads. 4 The potential personnel problems and possible solutions resulting from either (or both) transferring employees to new assignments or laying off any extra staff The hospital will definitely face personnel problems associated with transfer of employees to new assignments as well as laying off the extra staff. Either transfer or layoffs will mean there will be likely understaffing in the remaining operational clinics taking into ...