Athabasca University, Athabasca

HADM 488

SCOPE OF THE RISK MANAGEMENT PROGRAM
The purpose of a health care risk management program is to protect the organization against
risks associated with accidental losses, regardless of the cause. One of the building blocks of an
effective program is sufficient scope to cover all potential sources of risk. Although many risk
management professionals focus on the medical professional liability aspects of health care risk
management, the discipline extends into many other areas that are equally important to the
survival of the modern health care organization. Defined broadly, health care risk management is
concerned with a tremendous variety of issues and situations that hold the potential for liability
or casualty losses for the organization. To be truly comprehensive, a risk management program
must address the full scope of the following categories of risk:
■ Patient care – related
■ Medical staff – related
■ Employee - related
■ Property - related
■ Financial
■ Other
A number of specific risk management guidelines apply to policy systems in
health care:
 Policies, procedures and guidelines must remain as comprehensive as necessary and
cover the major areas of administrative and clinical activity of the organization.
 Policies and procedures must be as current as possible, monitored for compliance and
adapted as circumstances dictate.
 The development of new policies should always receive risk management review.