Hello, I'm Lori Borovoy, a Senior Healthcare Risk Management Specialist with HIROC.
I was a previous subscriber involved with HIROC's Integrated Risk Management program Steering Committee and Advisory Committee.
I'm really proud to work with subscribers every day to advance integrated risk management.
Integrated risk management is so important as it looks to prioritize the
most significant risks across the organization. We all know that health
care is complex and every day organizations work to manage risks.
However sometimes risk may be in vertical or horizontal silos. And one
risk may receive attention and resources while other risks may go undetected or unacknowledged.
So an integrated risk management program brings it together.
Seven steps that are recommended to get started and sustain an IRM program, include the following:
Step number one is "Explore & Decision". Take a look at our HIROC resources that are here to help you.
We have an integrated risk management policy template.
We have a guidance document on 21 questions that boards should ask senior leadership
that also includes a sample board policy.
We have various guides, various short and brief risk notes and a number of tools that will help you.
Step two is "Risk Register Sign-On" step. As a subscriber
sign on to the Risk Register learn its capability, learn how simple and
effective it can be and how it can enable your integrated risk management program.
Step three is the "Ownership & Coordination" step, so this involves
considering what your processes are for your organization to make it sustainable.
Sometimes it's looking at what's your vision of integrated risk management and
it's asking that simple question – what does
integrated risk management mean to us? It's also considering – what is the
process for ownership? It may be asking as well – will we be using targets or
other areas that are available within the risk register.
Step four is "Risk Identification" of high-level risks. Considering what are your existing risks?
What are the areas of uncertainty or concern over the next three to twelve
months? What is the data telling you about your organization? So for example
HIROC's Risk Assessment Checklist. Or consider what your safety picture is,
including what is your incident management system trends tell you. What
do claims tell you. What does patient complaints tell you. And what are
executive walk-arounds telling you. Start to develop what your risks are. Keep it
simple, even a few can be helpful. Once you have developed your risk, step five is
the "Risk Register Validation". So considering are these risks what we're
most concerned about. Are our mitigation strategies at the level we want them to be at for step five.
Step six is the "Sustainability & Review Process" step.
This is really your ongoing operation step. So making sure that you have
developed a fluid program that considers – how often are we reviewing with the
senior team. What is the priorization and conversation. How do we bring in a new
risk while at the same time have a mechanism to retire a risk that should
no longer be on the Risk Register. Step seven is "Risk Register IRM Knowledge Sharing and Development."
You will mature in your program and this step you're
sharing the knowledge as well as making sure that you have knowledge that is
shared and available for you. We recently asked subscribers, particularly those
that were more mature in their journey what are they most proud of with their
integrated risk management program and using HIROC's Risk Register.
What they said was that they were really proud of senior leadership engagement, ownership, and support.
They were really proud in terms of how they've seen silos be decreased
and become more integrated and the alignment with key strategic objectives,
just to name a few. Why is it so important for you as a
subscriber to use HIROC's resources, whether it be the resources as tools, or
whether it be the people who work at HIROC. We have the expertise to help you.
We work with subscribers every day and we want to help you progress your
journey to keep patients safe as well as to identify and help you with your
integrated risk management program. Risk management is everyone's responsibility
from the frontline, managing day-to-day risks, to managers, to senior executive
team, as well as with board oversight. If everyone could have Risk Manager in
their title, that would be amazing. We're all here to work together to focus
on risk management and safety in healthcare.
HIROC is also here to help.