Risk management paper
Risk management is defined as a program directed toward identifying of, evaluating of,
and taking corrective action against potential risks that could lead to injury of patients,
staff, or visitors. It is a planned program of loss prevention and liability control, and its
main purpose is to identify, analyze, and evaluate risks and then to develop a plan for
reducing the frequency and severity of accidents and injuries (Decker and Sullivan, 2001).
Risk management is a continuous daily program of detection, education, and intervention.
This paper will describe the risk management issues at Great River Medical Center as they
pertain to medication errors, and will describe the methods that are currently taking place
to address this issue.
Identifying Potential Risk
Identifying potential risks for accident, injury, or financial loss requires formal and
informal communication that involves all organizational departments in the facility. The
risk management department at Great River Medical Center conducted on study on
medication errors in the facility during preparation for a JACHO inspection. During this
study, they discovered that medication errors had increased steadily over a 2 year period,
and that many of them were because of illegibility reasons. The two most common
legibility reasons included reading the initial order and reading the medication on the hand
written medication sheet.
According to Michael R. Cohen, MS, FASHP, from the Institute for Safe Medication
Practices, poor handwriting is the leading cause of medication errors. Poor handwriting
can blur the distinction between two medications that have similar names. And, many drug
