Determining hospital risk management staffing through analytics

This article presents the development of an independent research project to gather time data from hospital risk managers in order to establish an objective, justifiable means of determining staffing levels recommended to support risk management activities and department functions.     

A review of the Office of Inspector General's reports on adverse event identification and reporting

The Office of Inspector General published a series of four reports from 2008 to 2010 after investigating the frequency and financial impact of “never events” on Medicare recipients. This series investigated healthcare's ability to identify the occurrence of these events and yielded a detailed analysis of data that must, or at least should, be reviewed to fully understand the clinical risks affecting organizations. These reports also shed light on the reality that there remains gross underreporting of adverse events in healthcare and begs several questions about healthcare's current efforts to fully identify and understand risk. This article summarizes the reports and considers their risk management implications, particularly regarding adverse events.     

Discovering gold mines in HRM

Two of my favorite tasks as a risk management professional are to mentor new risk managers and to educate the public about our profession. This profession requires an incredible depth of knowledge and the capacity to keep an open mind. Most days are challenging, but they are rarely boring or repetitive. It's wonderful to mentor a new person, whom you've just persuaded to take a job in risk management, and help him or her to develop over time into a true risk management professional.     

Including patients in root cause and system failure analysis: Legal and psychological implications

The act of open disclosure of an adverse event alone may not be enough for patients or their families. Patients and patient advocates are asking for increased transparency and a greater role in the process of change. When properly handled, involving patients in post‐event analysis allows risk management professionals to further improve their organization's systems analysis process while empowering patients to be part of the solution. This article examines the legal and psychological considerations surrounding the involvement of patients in system failure analysis and provides tools for selecting patients who are able to benefit from this process and for adequately preparing patients and caregivers for what lies ahead.     

Cyber risk and privacy liability: A click in the right direction¿

Cyber risk and privacy exposure exert an impact upon virtually every aspect of a healthcare organization (HCO) — assets, clinical operations, finances and reputation. Exposure is enterprise‐wide and includes risk to both physical and non‐physical assets in increasing degrees. The consequences of a cyber attack or privacy breach could be operationally and financially catastrophic, so an HCO's move toward an enterprise‐wide approach at identifying and minimizing risk, cyber and privacy liability should be on the radar screen for risk managers and leadership.     

Viewing the candidates as risk managers

After one of the most chaotic political primary seasons that we've seen in many years, election season began early this time around. It promises to be one of the most entertaining in decades as we head towards the respective national conventions in late summer. The candidates are touting “change” as one of the central themes for their campaigns, but I must say that a more appropriate word might be “choice.” I doubt that there has ever been a more diverse field of candidates.     

Life: Coming to grips with the balancing act

At the Annual Conference & Exhibition this fall in Boston, I met a young man who took the time to tell me that he had enjoyed my last President's Message. He appreciated what I had to say about the importance of relationships, and he suggested that I write about work/life balance. He had a young family, and he seemed to be struggling with the competing priorities of work and home.     

Evaluating an owner‐to‐worker training intervention in California nail salons using personal air monitoring

Background

Chemicals in nail products have been linked to numerous health concerns.

Methods

We recruited Vietnamese‐American nail salon owners and workers in California and randomized salons into an intervention or control group. Owners in the intervention group received training and then provided education to workers in their salons on best practices to reduce workplace chemical exposures. Methyl methacrylate (MMA), toluene, and total volatile organic compounds (TVOCs) were measured using personal air monitors worn by workers during the work‐shift.

Results

We enrolled 77 salons (37 intervention and 40 control) and 200 workers. There was no significant intervention effect between the two groups. However, MMA and TVOCs were higher for workers who used gel polish and acrylic nails as well as in busy salons.

Conclusions

Although the intervention did not show reductions in chemical levels, identifying worker tasks and salon characteristics that predict chemical levels can inform future interventions to reduce exposures.