Healthcare Risk Management for Older Adults
The purpose of this assignment is to analyze a health care risk management program.
Conduct research on approaches to risk management processes, policies, and concerns in your current or anticipated professional arena to find an example of a risk management plan. Look for a plan with sufficient content to be able to complete this assignment successfully. In a 1,000-1,250-word paper, provide an analysis of the risk management plan that includes the following:
Summary of the type of risk management plan you selected (new employee, specific audience, community-focused, etc.) and your rationale for selecting that example. Describe the health care organization to which the plan applies and the role risk management plays in that setting.
Description of the standard administrative steps and processes in a typical health care organization’s risk management program compared to the administrative steps and processes you identify in your selected example plan. (Note: For standard risk management policies and procedures, look up the MIPPA-approved accrediting body that regulates the risk management standards in your chosen health care sector, and consider federal, state, and local statutes as well.)
Analysis of the key agencies and organizations that regulate the administration of safe health care in your area of concentration and an evaluation of the roles each one plays in the risk management oversight process.
Evaluation of your selected risk management plan’s compliance with the standards of its corresponding MIPPA-approved accrediting body relevant to privacy, health care worker safety, and patient safety.
Proposed recommendations or changes you would implement in your risk management program example to enhance, improve, or secure the aforementioned compliance standards.
In addition to your textbook, you are required to support your analysis with a minimum of three peerâ€reviewed references.
Prepare this assignment according to the guidelines found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center. An abstract is not required.
Sample Answer
Healthcare Risk Management for Older Adults
Background
Introduction and Rationale
The percentage of people over sixty-five years has increased, resulting in the need for higher quality in geriatric care. Older adults are more vulnerable to healthcare risks due to loss of cognitive function, declining physical ability, and increased susceptibility to infections and lifestyle diseases (Sarvimäki, A., & Stenbock-Hult, 2016). Hence, caregivers attending to them should uphold high risk management standards to guarantee the best possible outcomes. A healthcare risk management program for older adults would primarily focus on acute and long-term care but would traverse any other healthcare setting geriatrics visits.
Program’s Role in Healthcare Risk Management
All healthcare organizations offering care across the lifespan should implement a geriatric risk management program. Similarly, care homes for the elderly and specialized clinics attending to conditions common among this population, such as orthopedic, cardiovascular, diabetes, and hypertension units, should have a practical risk management plan. Risk management would serve several functions for older adults. First, it would promote prescription adherence. Older adults may fail to adhere to clinicians’ guidelines due to forgetfulness, failure to comprehend the severity of the health status, or a life-long culture of non-compliance (Barzagan et al., 2017). Unfortunately, the consequences are dire for them, necessitating risk management.
Older adults are also prone to falls. Their declining physical capacity, including muscular atrophy, neuropathy, chronic pain, and sensory loss, puts them at risk of losing motor control and falling onto a hard surface (Sarvimäki, A., & Stenbock-Hult, 2016). Falls can significantly impact the patients’ progress. A risk management plan would ensure caregivers follow evidence-based guidelines when caring for older adults within a long-term or acute care setting.
Finally, the geriatric healthcare risk management program would enhance access to care services. Older adults are often retired, hence have limited financial capacity. Failure to receive timely care can be extremely costly for older adults. Therefore, the program will establish administrative and corporate relations with different healthcare organizations to enhance older adults’ access to healthcare.
Administrative Procedures and Policies
The National Council on Aging (NCOA) is a MIPPA-approved organization that advocates for the well-being of the aging population. NCOA’s risk management mainly focuses on access to healthcare for older adults. It has four essential tools, the first being promising practices (NCOA, 2021). These are innovative approaches for identifying low-income earning older adults and enrolling them in health benefit plans. The organization also employs data visualization tools to assist in identifying problematic regions. NCOA also collects data from underserved populations to determine eligibility for healthcare benefits. Finally, the council coordinates its efforts through the Social Security Administration (NCOA, 2021).
The NCOA’s policies are slightly different from the healthcare risk management plan since the latter also focuses on clinical outcomes. Caregivers receive training on enhancing the patients’ well-being, such as communication, cultural sensitivity, and ways of avoiding medication errors (Pozgar, 2014, p. 341). Furthermore, the program considers complementary and alternative medicine as ways of lowering healthcare costs. Despite the differences, the program and NCOA share a common goal of enhancing access to and quality of healthcare services for older adults.
Both NCOA and the healthcare risk management program conform to various legal requirements. For instance, they comply with the provisions in each of the four parts of the Medicare program. There are minimal state variations for Medicare, with the local departments of health’s chief responsibility being enrollment and coordination.
Key Agencies and Organizations
Healthcare risk management coordination and improvement in Texas mainly occurs through the American Society for Healthcare Risk Management (ASHRM). ASHRM is a national entity that addresses patient safety, insurance, finance, overall risk management, among other healthcare risk-related issues. The organization coordinates with the local societies to identify specific needs. In Texas, the society deals with STSHRM and the Greater Houston Society for Healthcare Risk Management (GHSHRM) (ASHRM, 2021). GHSHRM is an independent chapter of ASHRM, focusing on cooperation and networking to attain the parent society’s goals.
ASHRM also works alongside the South Texas Society of Healthcare Risk Management (STSHRM). The society coordinates the exchange of ideas between risk management stakeholders. It also provides opportunities for competency improvement for healthcare practitioners and managers. Next, STSHRM develops strategies to protect healthcare providers from liability. Here, the society delves into legislative and clinical ways of minimizing risks. It also directs caregivers on specific ways of handling patients to ensure they are not liable should a sentinel event occur. Therefore, the organization affords healthcare practitioners more confidence in their work and standardizes procedures for dealing with sentinel event cases.
