Introduction
Risk management is a significant aspect of any successful organization, either a business-related or health care institution. Many individuals tend to confuse operational risks with strategic risks; the latter involves performing the duties in the right manner while strategy primarily entails doing what is right. When an institution fails to monitor the needs of its customers in time, the strategic risks arise. Failure in strategic management in healthcare companies may result in severe outcomes starting from losing clients to causing deaths. Risk management is entirely a process that follows identified steps beginning with identifying the risk of developing away in that can prevent it from happening or control it if it happens (Alam, 2016). Any misconduct in strategizing the risks may lead to collapsing of the health facility. The paper will monitor the dangers of the community or public facilities, evaluating them, and analyzing the situation.
Funding
Community health care facilities entirely depend on the central government for funding or the little raised from the patients for the regular running. Due to this factor, the institutions are exposed to several risks that must have a strategic plan to control them. For example, in 2020, COVID-19 became a very global challenge to almost every state in the world. A study by the W.H.O shows that in most developed nations, one in ten patients may be harmed during the treatment process (Alam, 2016). Management is, therefore, encouraged to employ necessary measures to avoid these deaths. Medical errors are the third cause of mortality after heart disease and cancer, according to a study conducted by the Institute for Health Improvement.
The community facilities understood these facts to some point. Risk management in the health sector should be taken as one of the essential factors globally (Ginter, Duncan, & Swayne, 2018). The first step in risk management is identifying the risk. The facilities identified medical errors as one of the most common threats in the health care sector. The errors may occur as are a result of adverse medicine, reduced services, or negligence of some doctors and nurses. Severally, these errors lead to deaths or cause permanent disabilities to patients.
Adverse drugs are where a physician prescribes the wrong medication to a patient, and this is caused by the nurses either knowingly or unknowingly (Ginter et al., 2018). Another cause of these errors some of the workers in the organization not performing their duties to perfection. Doing this will directly cause some negative impacts on both the client and the health facility. Additionally, the clinic has a risk of adding more infections during the surgical process (Alam, 2016). Although it is not familiar, it is a risk worthy strategizing, and nothing should be taken for granted in the health care industry. The errors may occur due to poor communication between the staff or even between the doctors and the patient.
Before taking any action identifying the potential risks should be significant. The information may be obtained from the staff and also the patients. Some other risk involves the risk of very infectious diseases (Ginter et al., 2018). Some disease which circulates in the world is very contagious, and the health facilities should be ready to tackle them in case there is an outbreak. The community health institutions may not be equipped to an extent to handle serious infections. Although they have put some measures such as having isolation wards for patients who show any symptoms of these kinds of diseases, it can be challenging in cases of massive outbreaks. The cause of these may be the lack of enough isolation facilities that are key in ensuring that the spread is stopped or minimized. The absence of much-needed infrastructure may cause some challenges to the local health public facilities.
Handling nuclear medicine may be another challenge for most of the community health care facilities. Due to the high demands of this kind of medication, the less developed institutions may not meet the required standard (Ginter et al., 2018). The leading cause here is a lack of the necessary machine to conduct the needed therapy. The diseases treated using this method are not so frequent, and this eases the pressure on these organizations. Another block in achieving these treatments may be the shortage of human resources. The machines require highly skilled experts to operate them and deliver excellent results to the clients. Drug addicts also happened to impose a difficult test for these facilities (Alam, 2016). It was evident in dealing with narcotic drug addicts requires some special care. The shortage of these specialists means that handling these shortcomings may need a strategic plan.
As individuals in the medicine sector go through the education systems, they come to learn significant ways to employ in dealing with risks. Strategic risk management is the only and most favorable way of handling or preventing risks (Ginter et al., 2018). Educational systems define and describe the full procedure that health care managers should follow in preventing some future risks. Strategic risk management primarily involves some ways to prevent or stop the threats (Landers, Madigan, Leff, Rosati, McCann, Hornbake, & Lee, 2016). First, it is a must try to avoid the risks with all the available resources.
Besides, the risks that cannot be avoided, management should develop a suitable strategy to reduce the probability to the lowest degree possible. Through learning, medical directors can apply a budget for economic capital that is the amount needed to cover any unexpected loss due to risk (Landers et al., 2016). The knowledge acquired through education is crucial in the risk management of the health care facilities. Without any educational background on the requirement of strategic management, it will be impossible to carry out this crucial task. Additionally, some management techniques acquired in education serve a great purpose in risk management strategy.
Challenges and Risks
Almost every medical facility has some challenges and risks to overcome to be successful and provide services effectively (Landers et al., 2016). The managers, such as the human resource manager should be in the first line in making strategic risk management (Ginter et al., 2018). The errors start right from the employee themselves, and this can be stopped by starting to motivate the workers. Creating employee awareness will also help in reducing the risks that they experience. Once the workers understand their roles in the facility, they will be motivated to work. Additionally, carrying out employee appraisal may help in reducing the risks which occur as a result of some physician being negligent (Landers et al., 2016). Moreover, it is essential to invest in insurance cover to be used in case a risk occurs, and this may reduce its severity.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the interview conducted showed that every stakeholder in the medical industry is significant and should be considered when making strategic risk management (Landers et al., 2016). Starting from the patients to the managers, all are important in identifying the risks that may be experienced in the future. Although there exist the residual risks that must be there due to the fact it is almost impossible to control everything and nature, some calamities will always occur even though this nothing should be left without being analyzed to the final bit. Education also brings out the real situation to training nurses and doctors, as they come to understand that there will be some challenges in the line of duty.
