The main role of healthcare organizations is to ensure that patients receive quality care, thereby improving health in the community. In the process of providing quality services, various challenges and risks, such as data breaches, are encountered. Therefore, any healthcare organization must develop a risk management plan that enables it to withstand any threats encountered to reduce its impact on services provision. A proper risk management plan could help healthcare organizations assess, monitor, and prevent any risk from happening to avoid disrupting normal organization's processes. This paper explores a risk management plan to provide a safe environment that fosters safe and quality care to patients in a community setting; the selected risk plan is fall prevention for older adults.
Risk Management Plan
A fall prevention plan is the risk management plan that will target the older population in the community setting. This plan's main objective is to identify the population in society vulnerable to falls to reduce the number of falls and develop evidence-based interventions. Like other risks in healthcare, prevention is the best technique to reduce injuries and risks related to falls. The reason for selecting the fall prevention plan is because falls pose a huge health risk to the elderly population and often have devastating outcomes; in the worst-case scenario, patients could die. According to Burns & Kakara (2018), falls are among the top causes of deaths and injuries in the older population. Burns and Kakara's report investigated incidences and fatality rates resulting from falls among the elderly population, individuals with 65 years or more, between 2007 and 2016. They discovered that falls are catastrophic to this population. Luckily, falls can be easily prevented; this plan suggests useful techniques for preventing falls, at the home and community setting for the elderly population.
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Administrative Processes
This plan's risk management process involves identification, analysis, evaluation, and management of the risk. The risk and context identification step revolves around identifying the high priority areas, which requires risks to be managed to increase the patient's safety. After identifying the high-risk areas, the risks that could befall an individual can be identified. This involves being aware of the risks within the patient's environment. The second step involves analyzing the risk. Risk analysis is applied to evaluate the identified risks; it involves assessing the intensity and fatality of the risk, the causes of the risk, and the possible actions to minimize the risk occurrence (Aven, 2016) . The third step involves evaluating the risk. Risk evaluation involves identifying the priority risk to handle first based on the risk severity (Aven, 2015). After identifying the priority risks, they are managed based on the threat they pose. High priority risks are handled first, followed by low priority risks.
Healthcare is among the essential sectors due to its huge role in improving people's lives. For the continued provision of quality services within the health sector, all healthcare providers need to develop and implement proper risk management plans. These organizations could apply the Total Quality Management technique to improve the quality of services (Alzoubi et al., 2018). The application of TQM programs in managing risks in healthcare minimizes the effects of the organization's risks. Minimizing the effect of the risk helps improve care, patient safety, and reduce costs. The benefit of applying risk management plans in healthcare is developing a culture that supports risk management and applying evidence-based interventions.
Managing falls among elderly patients is very challenging due to the weak physical conditions of the elderly. However, risks can be prevented through various techniques. First, elderly individuals should engage in physical exercises, such as walks, to improve body strength, balance, and flexibility. Also, individuals should wear comfortable and sensible shoes; shoes, such as high-heels, are not advisable and could reduce stability. Additionally, home hazards could be removed. Some home hazards include grease, poorly arranged boxes, tapes, and strings. Individuals should also keep essential things like clothes in their reach while ensuring proper lighting is applied in poorly lit areas.
Key Agencies
Safety is critical in patient care and requires regulation; various organizations are involved in ensuring patient safety in the healthcare setting. Some of these organizations are the Agency for Health Research and Quality, the World Health Organization, the Institute of Health Improvement, Health Quality Promotion, and the CDC. AHRQ researches to develop strategies to improve patient safety while WHO develops guidelines and tools that should be followed to promote patient safety (WHO, 2019) . The DHCP plays a huge role in protecting patients and healthcare providers, promoting patient care. The Institute of Health Improvement also plays a vital role in promoting patient safety by improving science and patient safety to improve healthcare outcomes. Additionally, the CDC is a protection agency that engages in patient protection by protecting their health, safety, and health risks.
Compliance Evaluation
The fall prevention management plan aligns with the Joint Commission's safety requirements by continuing to improve patient safety and care. It also meets the requirements of DHQP of promoting patient safety. A fall prevention plan is essential in promoting the safety of the elderly. CDC emphasizes the creation of a better environment to reduce the risks associated with falls. This helps create awareness regarding living in a safe environment and taking safety precautions, such as wearing safety shoes, which helps prevent falls. Government agencies, like CDC, play a huge role in preventing falls; however, their major task is creating awareness. The remaining role of promoting safety is for the family and community members to help older adults live in a safe environment. Family members, social workers, and the public are responsible for educating the elderly regarding the safety precautions, such as wearing safety shoes, lighting houses properly to avoid tripping and performing exercises. They could also volunteer and help the elderly with setting up their homes appropriately and eliminate hazards that could result in falls, such as poorly arranged household items.
The risk management plan is also in compliance with state and federal regulations. This makes the plan safe and reliable for improving patient safety and improving the services they receive. The implementation of fall prevention reduces injuries and injury-related deaths that befall the elderly members of the community. By so doing, the program improves well-being, reduces suffering, and reduces medical bills, which could accrue in case of injury.
Recommendations
Patient safety is essential in improving health outcomes. In my recommended risk management plan, I would provide the following recommendations to improve healthcare outcomes and patient safety:
Stakeholders in the health sector should provide education to community members on how to prevent falls. Creating awareness about health issues goes a long way in improving healthcare outcomes. By integrating patient education in this plan, the number of injury-related deaths and injuries among older adults will decline.
Stakeholders in healthcare should implement a holistic approach using standardized tools. Using a holistic approach helps serve the whole person, mentally, physically, and emotionally; this makes the plan understandable by every member of the community. Additionally, using standardized tools ensures compliance with all healthcare ethical guidelines.
References
Alzoubi, M. M., Rosliza, A. M., Ahmad, A. A., & Al-Hamdan, Z. M. (2018). Total quality management in the healthcare context: integrating the literature and directing future research. Risk Management and Healthcare Policy, 12 , 167-177. https://doi.org/10.2147/RMHP.S197038
Aven, T. (2015). Risk assessment and risk management: Review of recent advances on their foundation. European Journal of Operational Research , 1-13. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2015.12.023
Burns, E., & Kakara, R. (2018). Deaths from Falls Among Persons Aged ≥65 Years — United States. MMWR and Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 67 , 509-514. http://dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm6718a1
WHO. (2019, September 13). Patient Safety. World Health Organization . Retrieved from https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/patient-safety
