A formal risk management plan demonstrates a health care organization’s approach as well as support for risk management and, ultimately, patient safety. Accessing information from your own employer/organization or using the internet to find an allied health care organization located in your city or region, identify the goals and objectives, scope, and functions of an existing risk management plan. How does the plan “measure up” in terms of meeting ethical and legal responsibilities to stakeholders? How might you improve it? Explain.
You are required to use and cite a minimum of two references from the GCU Library to support your response.
Solution
I currently work at Cone Health, where there is an existing risk management plan for suicide and self-harm prevention within our facilities. The goal of this risk management plan is to reduce the likelihood of a patient being able to harm themselves while undergoing care at a Cone Health facility (Cone Health, 2023). The function of a risk management plan is to educate staff on how to identify risk, measure risk, and reduce risk. This plan measures up in meeting ethical and legal responsibilities because it helps meet the requirements of the Joint Commission, which is the accrediting body for Cone Health. The Joint Commission requires their participants to measure risk of suicidal patients, which Cone Health does, and that is also outlined in the risk management plan (The Joint Commission, 2019). One change I would implement to improve this risk management plan would be requiring updated training once a year on suicide and self-harm prevention in Cone Health facilities to make sure the staff is well educated on the matter. I would do this because there is a lot of confusion about certain rules and regulations when it comes to suicidal patients in our facilities, especially if they are involuntary or voluntary commitments. I think the best way to make sure this risk management plan is is effective is to make sure that everyone is well educated on it.
Cone Health. (2023). Suicide assessment and precautions for at-risk patients.
https://conehealth.navexone.com/content/dotNet/documents/?docid=6435&app=pt&source=search
The Joint Commission. (2019). Requirement, rationale, reference.
https://www.jointcommission.org/-/media/tjc/documents/standards/r3-reports/r3_18_suicide_prevention_hap_bhc_cah_11_4_19_final1.pdf
