Abstract
Enterprise Architecture is a strategic planning activity for any organization. It facilitates the decision-making process by enabling a conceptual view of the entire enterprise. The main objective of the Enterprise Architecture is to define a layout of the organizational components and identify various relationships between them. The healthcare domain is especially important due to its sensitive operations and human involvement. While improvement is welcomed in this area, it can be difficult to handle resources and service improvement through the difficulty in operations. The process of risk management plays an important role in the enterprise architecture management plan. This study extended to include risk management policies and standards within the healthcare organization. The study analyzes the role of enterprise architecture plan in Kaiser Permanente.
Introduction
Risk management refers to the processes, culture, and structures developed so as to effectively manage potential adverse effects and opportunities of any activity within the healthcare institution. The process of managing risks is achieved through the systematic application of procedures, policies, and standards. Doing this helps to identify, evaluate, treat, monitor, communicate, analyze, and establish the context the risk (Cagliano et al., 2011). Risk management is important in the healthcare organization so as to develop, device, and monitor the risk management plan with the aim of minimizing exposure to risk. There are several priorities within the healthcare organization that should be addressed. The areas include finance, safety, and patient care.
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Risk management plays various roles within the healthcare organization. A risk management plan would facilitate adherence to the correct professional practices. This would promote compliance with healthcare regulations, statues, and various accreditation requirements. The plan would create standardized risk management practices within the healthcare system. New personnel would find the plan resourceful as they would not have to rely on memory.
Risk management is geared to handle various issues within the healthcare organization. The plan is first geared to the financing, claims and insurance management. Other plans departments that would be addressed include incident and event management, clinical research, human and psychological health care, and emergency preparedness. The role of healthcare managers is to identify and evaluate risks as a means to reduce injury to staff, patients, visitors, and members of the organization. Healthcare risk managers work reactively and proactively to prevent any incidents and to minimize damages that could occur after a catastrophic event.
Policies
Policies for risk management will best be handled through various policy statements. The policy statements include recognition for the need of risk management, a commitment to implement the risk management well, a commitment to knowledge and training in the field of risk management, and a commitment to review progress and monitor performance in risk management.
Procedures
The procedure to risk management can be divided into five basic steps that include establishing the context, identify the risk, analyze the risk, evaluate the risk, and to treat or manage the risk. Establishing context is important to risk management. The context can involve various areas such as the emergency room, Intensive Care Unit, Operation room, medication management or blood transfusion services. It is important to first identify high priority areas for risk management in the healthcare organization.
The next step would risk identification where healthcare professionals within the organization are aware of the risks in the environment and their healthcare services. The risk identified should be entered in a Risk Management Tool or a Risk Register. The source of risk identification can include department managers, Chiefs, and staff.
Analyzing risk will about developing an understanding of the risk that has been identified. This could involve the level of the risk, the underlying causes of the risk, and existing control measures. When analyzing the existing control measures, consideration should be given to the method of implementation, adequacy, and effectiveness to minimize the risk as much as possible.
Evaluating the risk will involve prioritizing the risk based on the analysis score. This should help determine which risks require treatment and the mode of treatment for a specific risk. Risk treatment is the final step in the risk management, and risk control is the final step in the risk management procedure. Risk treatment will involve analyzing the proposed actions, resource requirements, time frames and the people responsible for the action. Controlling the risk will involve redesigning the entire system and processes so that the potential for an adverse outcome is reduced.
Standards
Risk management standards are best analyzed through the International Organization for Standards guide. The guide involves a governance and leadership standard that analyzes risks. According to the risk management standards, the governing body should work to reduce risks within the organization and to promote quality improvement. The governing body should also ensure that an integrated risk management approach and contingency plans have been in place to manage risks. The organization leaders play a role in managing and mitigating risks within the organization. The organization should disseminate and the risk management plan throughout the organization and ensure its effectiveness ( Raz and Hillson, 2005).
References
Cagliano, A. C., Grimaldi, S., & Rafele, C. (2011). A systemic methodology for risk management in the healthcare sector. Safety Science , 49 (5), 695-708.
Raz, T., & Hillson, D. (2005). A comparative review of risk management standards. Risk Management , 7 (4), 53-66.
