Risk Management takes many forms. Financial risk management, for example, is an exercise in research and computation. Financial risk management can be done without ever leaving the confines of an office. Workplace risk management, on the other hand, involves real world activities as varied as design, construction, workplace practices and training. In healthcare risk management, there was a time when healthcare risk management referred to the care and education of the patient. The healthcare professional advised the patient on medicine, diet, nutrition, exercise, cleanliness and other issues so that the patient was empowered to take personal steps that reduced the patient’s risk of injury and illness and increased the patient’s chances of healing and recovery.
Healthcare risk management no longer refers to the outward facing view of assisting patients in managing their health risks. Instead healthcare risk management now is inward facing, with the stated purpose of lessening the exposure of healthcare institutions all along the supply chain to litigation. Certification in healthcare risk management is now offered by most states. It is an expected certification for applicants to many administrative positions.
Because the United States is the only industrialized nation in the world that does not offer a type of universal healthcare to citizens, risk management in healthcare must encompass different criteria than else where. In the United States, the purposes of introductory courses in healthcare risk management are several.
Because most students come to the subject from a medical, rather than a business, background, the first course in a healthcare risk management curriculum is usually an overview of risk management as a subject in business administration. The overview tends to draw heavily on the financial and workplace safety models of risk management.
After the student is trained to view risk management as an unavoidable element in the business of healthcare, other subjects covered are medical malpractice and negligence, the management of insurance claims and supply chain liability exposure.
