Risk assessments will be prominent in the 2009 EC standards
Answer: Not likely . . .
Question: Is he ever going to shut up about risk assessments?
I still sense there are those of you out there who remain somewhat unconvinced of the importance of the risk assessment process. You know you have to do it ‘cause it’s a requirement, but if you don’t go at it in a purposeful manner, it won’t do you any good beyond probably passing survey muster--but we’re not just about that anymore, are we?
In looking at all the lovely reconfigured standards and performance elements, I can’t help but think that in order to succeed at the management of risk in the EC, it is of critical importance to adopt a data-driven risk assessment model.
I mean, just look at the new 2009 iteration of the The Joint Commission’s general duty clause (formerly EC.1.10, EPs 4 and 5):
- EC.02.01.01, EP 1—The "hospital identifies safety and security risks associated with the environment of care. Risks are identified from internal sources such as ongoing monitoring of the environment, results of root cause analyses, results of annual proactive risk assessments of high-risk processes, and from credible external sources such as Sentinel Event Alerts." But wait, there’s more…
- EC.02.01.01, EP 3--The "hospital take action to minimize or eliminate identified safety and security risks in the physical environment."
That means you have hunt these risks down and either reduce them to the lowest possible impact (and think about how you’re going to measure that!) or eradicate them completely (this, I believe, is somewhat more succinct than to "select and implement procedures and controls to achieve the lowest potential for adverse impact on the safety and health of…").
Now, you and I both know that if we can somehow create a risk-neutral condition, that’s a pretty good day’s work. Is that going to be enough moving forward? Thus our charge is crafting a process that absolutely, positively demonstrates our compliance efforts and the successes we have (and will continue) to derive from those efforts.
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