Healthcare Providers Are Facing These 5 Types of Risks

In today’s everchanging and complex healthcare industry, healthcare professionals face a multitude of risks in their everyday work. While they are focused on providing the best care to their patients, they may not be aware of the risks they face on the daily.

According to Asia Care Group, the five categories of risks below account for the majority of medical malpractice claims.

Human Risk

• Wrong diagnosis or delayed diagnosis

• Prescribing errors (dosing error, adverse interactions, wrong administration method)

• Failure to provide prophylactics

• Failure to take proper history / failure to spot allergies or intolerances

• Failure to act on results timely or appropriately

• Inadequate follow-up or long-term management

• Poor communication of the condition/procedure leading to an adverse outcome

• Error in selection or administration of a procedure

• Inadequate pre/post surgery preparation, leading to an adverse event (e.g. wrong sided surgery, wrong procedure, wrong patient)

Process Risk

• Lack of clinical process guidelines

• Lack of discharge/admission protocols

• Inappropriate waiting time protocols leading to delays in process with adverse impact

• Inappropriate triage processes leading to mistreatment or untimely treatment

Technology Risk

• Breach in data privacy

• Error in data entry

• Inability to access electronic records, resulting in missing history/inappropriate action

• Malfunction of medical devices leading to patient harm

• Barcoding error, leading to inaccurate tracking or use of equipment/medications

• CCTV at locations considered to be private for patients

Compliance Risk

• Failure to follow regulatory controls of medication

• Failure to upkeep equipment maintenance records

• Failure to document patient consent

• Failure to meet regulatory quality standards

• Failure to comply with medical waste legislation

• Breaches of health and safety

Organisation Risk

• Lack of safeguarding policies

• Lack of HR/credentialing checks

• Lack of adequate patient safety protocols such as general infection control and theatre sterilization policies

• Lack of safe injection and blood transfusion practice guidelines

• Lack of guidelines to respect patient’s cultural and religious choices in medical treatment

Find out how you as a healthcare worker can protect yourself against these risks with a Medical Malpractice Insurance here.