The Perception of Risk Management in UK Hospitals - Research Paper Example

Since the term risk can mean different things in different settings and field, it is easy for some of the more subtle risk vulnerabilities can be ignored.  This paper has as its primary objective the defining and identifying how risks should be perceived and controlled in the hospital environment as opposed to how it is currently perceived and controlled. Organizational risk management is an important subject for research since recent trends illustrate that many organizations are increasingly paying attention to the management of health and safety.

  This increased attention to health and safety management comes as a result of heightened awareness and concerns about the duty of employers to provide a healthy and safe work environment (Hale, Heming, Carthey and Kirwan 1997, 121).  For hospitals, the duty to provide a healthy and safe place of work is an onerous one, since hospitals provide a health service.  Therefore health and safety risks to equipment and staff can compromise the health care services that hospitals are mandated to provide.

It is therefore not just about providing a safe and healthy workplace, it is also about quality assurance in the provision of health care services. Although there is legislation in place such as Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, maintaining a healthy and safe environment in any workplace is problematic because it deals with a system regulated by human beings. The problem arises because people have different perspectives about what kind of behavior has health risks or can cause accident, injury or disease.

  It, therefore, follows that some people in the workplace or on the premises will unintentionally engage in risky behavior.  Flemming and Lardner (1999) concluded that over 80 percent of all injuries in the workplace occur as a result of workers adopting incorrect practices in the performance of their jobs (16-18).