Role of Incident Reports in Risk Management and Professional Liability in a Healthcare Setting - Research Paper Example

? INCIDENT REPORTS & RISK MANAGEMENT Role of incident reports in risk management and professional liability in a healthcare setting (hospital setting) I. Introduction It is worthwhile to remember that the first cases of risk in health management was undertaken in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, these resulted majorly from the mere fact that at this time hospitals were faced with serious malpractices necessitating the above projections (Merida, 2011). Due to the increase in the cost of insurance at this time many large institutions were forced to develop their own captive insurance and trust arrangements to assure their clients of self insurance. This became the genesis of incident reporting and as well the increase of the in-house managers to assist in the trend analysis of the mentioned claims, they would in addition bring forth recommendations of the ways to prevent and mitigate such claims. Due to the uncertainties that are described above there it is actually fundament that risk and health information management (HIM) are related. This was depicted in the ensuing emergence of the soft insurance market that was founded between the years 1985-2000 (Rollins, 2011). This allowed the providers of health care to transfer completely the risks of malpractice via risk insurance transforming health providers from the tight internal risk management controls to the flexible external risk management controls. As a matter of fact many health providers under the current tight budgetary controls have declared redundant the position of the risk manager or they have added it more roles and responsibilities like being an oversight under the quality assurance sub departments and compliance activities (Dimick, 2009). An incident report in the hospitals is used as a litigation document though it is not part of the patient’s chart. It provides information to the administration about incidents so that future occurrences can be mitigated. Such reports also alert the administration and its insurance company for any potential claim and whether such claims should be investigated. According to OSHA regulation procedures, companies with more than 10 employees are obliged to keep such record of injuries and illnesses (Dimick, 2009). II. How the risk management department and HIM department work together Both risk management and Health information management (HIM) are vital and quite mandatory most so in hospital set ups. While risk management will be responsible for foreseeing and managing any glimpse of risks, the HIM department will be equipping the risk management with all the necessary data around the investigated risks through by providing the incident reports. The HIM departments through the relevant officers are a direct link between the doctors, patients, the hospital’s insurance providers and all the relevant parties in the field of health care. The department is able to collect, maintain and analyze the necessary health information and this leads to a great contribution to the heath care delivery both in quality and quantity most so when it comes to risk management (Merida, 2011). This they conduct through the enhanced relation between the policies and frameworks that peacefully relates the two departments. In the process the HIM department benefits again from the risk management strategies worked out by the risk management departments (Merida, 2011). This is due to the fact that the risk management department is responsible for ensuring that risk occurrence and to an extent the impact is minimized throughout the health organization. Such observational factors and relations have lead to the need for effective risk management especially due to the need to address the eminent challenges for effective risk management. This does not only apply to hospital settings but also to the long term care, home health and practices by the physicians. This is despite the fact that all the identified patient-care settings have very different and unique needs for management of risks though they generally revolve around the same. The importance of effective risk management must therefore be emphasized to give a guideline on how each of the two departments operates. III. The role of the HIM professional in handling risk management in the department The incident reports in hospital settings is quite fundamental hence very important and has to be prepared always. This is for a bunch of reasons; they are legal documents required by the provisions of the OSHA regulations, the reports also have a critical role in informing the management of the possibility that an incident may occur hence the need to provide a preventive mechanism. Also, they provide the same management and their insurance companies of potential claims hence the need to conduct investigations on the authenticity of the same. The HIM personnel have the sole responsibility of providing a link among all the parties within and without the hospital ranging from insurance providers, doctors and patients (Merida, 2011). They perform this role by collecting, maintaining and analyzing the required information hence delivering processed information for decision making in the institution as you know information is power. Due to the increasing volume and complexity of health data, the HIM professionals through their creative departments while working with the cutting edge technology have been in the position of transforming the data keeping department from paper to computerized, sophisticated and high tech systems with the inbuilt ability to detect and mitigate risks (Rollins, 2011). Due to the ever increasing regulation and rules and advanced issues such as privacy and computerized records calls for the HIM professionals to manage such environments. RHIT professionals are technicians who are responsible for verification of health records completeness, accuracy and proper entry into the computer systems and hence they are responsible and liable incase of negligence in handling such patients’ data (Merida, 2011). IV. What is in an incident report Such are the reports found in healthcare facility like the hospital or a nursing home and it is a form that is normally filled to provide for the current and future records of unusual event that occur in the organization like occupational injuries and illnesses (Rollins, 2011). The incident report is meant for the documentation of the exact details at the time of the occurrence of such unusual events, they are meant to provide fresh information from the witnesses. These information are vital in the future most so when there is a legal liability issues that crops up in the future hence the report must always be filled as soon a the event has occurred but after the stabilization of the situation. While most incident reports will always indicate only the patient victims, others will also document incidents when staff or visitor is injured. For a patient, they will always be monitored for a period following the incident as it is presumed it may happen again hence need to record the vital signs regularly. Incident reports are not part of the patient’s chart but the investigations and concluded results are quit important to the department of risk management as they are likely to use the reports to gauge for the occurrence of the same risks in the future. Therefore they will be able to establish the procedure to avert their future occurrence International Atomic Energy Agency. (2012). V. Conclusion Both the incident reporting and RHIT are important in health care facilities for the purpose of risk management. While incident reports will provide a detailed information about a risk occurrence as injuries and illnesses, the RHIT will always make sure that the provided data are accurate, complete and properly recorded in the computerized systems, this would hang a legal liability incase any neglect occurs on the part of the RHIT professionals. Health Information Management is also very important throughout the hospital. The HIM provide several aspects to an hospital ranging from prestige through connections of parties, variety through multiple careers, cutting edge technology by computerizing data recording and its ability to offer stability on the dynamic environment (Merida, 2011). References Dimick, C. (2009, July 7). Reports Pour in Under CA's New Privacy Laws. Retrieved from Journal of AHIMA: http://journal.ahima.org/2009/07/07/cas-new-privacy-laws/ International Atomic Energy Agency. (2012). Incident Reporting. Retrieved from IAEA Human Health Campus:http://nucleus.iaea.org/HHW/RadiationOncology/Improvingthequalityof service/ Incident reporting/index.html Merida L. Johns, P. R. (2011). Health Information Management Technology: An Applied Approach Third Edition. Chicago, IL: American Health Information Management Association (Johns xxiii). Rollins, G. (2011, April 1). Low-Tech Threats in a High-Tech World. Retrieved from Journal of AHIMA: http://journal.ahima.org/2011/04/01/low-tech-threats-in-a-high-tech-world/ Read More