WRNMMC Risk Management Program

Introduction 

The Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (WRNMMC) is the largest military medical center that is situated in Washington DC. The medical facility was established for serving military beneficiaries in Washington, the entire United States as well as from all over the globe.  The organization is a devolved medical facility that operates more than 100 clinics and specialties. It is a care facility where military beneficiaries visit and receive services. The organization concentrates in the provision of quality services that have seen it dubbed by many as, “The Nations Medical Center”. It is a facility that cares for the wounded ill and injured people room global conflicts. The organization is readily operational and has more than 7,000 dedicated members of staff who are committed to the health of patients. It is, therefore, an organization that can be seen to have considered risk management in such an effective manner.

WRNMMC Risk Management Program at Bethesda, MD

The WRNMMC risk management program encompasses four main outlooks. It is concerned with the operational, the technological, the human capital, and the clinical and patient safety outlooks. Using the outlooks the organization is able to assess risks facing the facility, evaluating the risks and treating the risks. The risk management program of the facility is, therefore, one that has enabled the organization to manage a good rapport with their patients and partners as observed below;

Operational

Because of the operational outlook, the WRNMMC facility has been operating since 1909. The organization prides in having actively operated the organization since it was opened in May 1909. As a risk management approach, the WRNMMC operates on a daily basis. It is an approach that they use to ensure that they provide services to all patients that visit the organization without failure. Because of their daily operational goal, the Bethesda facility is ever open. Being ever open squarely means that the organization an active server all the patients with ease thereby reducing the probability of sufferings and deaths in the facility for patients who are extremely hurt.

Technological

The WRNMMC has built a technological establishment in such an instrumental manner. Their technological establishment strikes across their ability to receive reports and calls for emergency services, a well-built system for managing patient data as well as organization data and also a widespread forum of communication which happens through their social sites and over their website. This component of the risk management program has helped the organization in keeping patients data safe as well as ensuring that activities in the facility are recorded actively for future retrieval (NEJM Catalyst, 2018). The technological approach of the organization is also deeply embedded in the manner in which patient services are expedited in the facility. The organization also has a risk management information system too from where they evaluate statistical reports of events claims and finances.

Human Capital

Over the years, WRNMMC has ensured a sufficient number of their medical staff. As of the current, the organization has more than 7000 members of staff who are dedicated to providing quality services to every patient that comes into the facility (Wrnmmc.capmed.mil, 2019). Having sufficient human capital ensures that the facility meets the patient requirements which are a sufficient risk management approach. 

Clinical and Patient Safety

WRNMMC is committed to ensuring clinical and patient safety in such an instrumental manner. The organization prides in a timely manner of responding to patient needs and providing high-quality healthcare for each of the beneficiaries of their services (Wrnmmc.capmed.mil, 2019).  The organization seeks to meet the best standards of care. They also track their performance and explore ways to improve in the provision of patient care. They further concentrate on comparing themselves to the nationally set standards of patient care. Their approach to patient care is a risk management approach that the organization has consistently made use of.

Adequacy of the Risk Management Program

The risk management program that is used by WRNMMC is sufficient in ensuring that the organization performs consistently. The management program evidently ensures that the organization prevents instances of risk especially in the delivery of services to the beneficiaries. However, a risk management program in healthcare needs to encompass a wide array of issues and not just the operational risks. The risks considered should be inclusive of instances of hazards legal issues, financial issues among others (Powers, Chaguturu & Ferris. 2015). Though the risk management program by WRNMMC ensures that the facility is run with very few difficulties, it leaves out significant issues that need to be included in the risk management program.

Comparison and Critique

A model healthcare facility should be considerate of eight risk domains. The risk domains are inclusive of the operational the clinical and patient safety, the strategic, the financial, the human capital, the legal and regulatory, the technological and the environmental and infrastructure based hazards (Cagliano, Grimaldi & Rafele,  2011). Using the above domains, the organization can the successfully coordinate a risk management program where the context of the risk can be established, the risk assessed, the risk identified analyzed and evaluated. In that context, we would view that WRNMMCs risk management program has to some extent achieved some part of the risk management program that should be followed by a rational healthcare facility. Using the four broad views of risk, the organization can establish the context of the risk assess it and analyze its intensity. However, there is very little that is done concerning the evaluation and treatment of all the risks facing the organization. There is, therefore, need for the organization to consider addressing the risks facing them by observing all the eight domains of risk.

Improvement and Recommendations

The organization needs to observe the manner in which they address risk management especially because of the legal and strategic scopes. For instance, there is a need for the organization to address legal risks for example in the manner in which they would address concerns when they are sued by patients (Alam, 2016.). Though it has never happened, it still remains an imminent risk that would affect the performance of the organization instrumentally. Again, strategically, the organization ought to be set in the way they would address concerns of new types of injuries. 

Conclusion

WRNMMC is an organization that has a well-performing risk management program. The risk management program has been made to address issues of patient safety, technology, human capital, and every other operational issue. The risk management program is however shallow in that it fails to address pertinent matters tha6t require to be addressed in any risk management program.

The following are recommendations on the improvements the facility needs to consider;

1. The organization should create a risk management committee. The committee is necessary as it would draft a better risk management program that would be responsible for creating a new risk management program that is all-inclusive
2. The facility needs to follow up on the identified risks and address them which will be a new procedure, unlike the current one where the facility assesses the risks and no redress is seen as per their program. 

References

Alam, A. (2016). Steps in the Process of Risk Management in Healthcare. [online] Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/308888285_Steps_in_the_Process_of_Risk_Management_in_Healthcare [Accessed 26 Jan. 2019].

Cagliano, A. C., Grimaldi, S., & Rafele, C. (2011). A systemic methodology for risk management in healthcare sector. Safety Science, 49(5), 695-708.

NEJM Catalyst. (2018). What is Risk Management in Healthcare? – NEJM Catalyst. [online] Available at: https://catalyst.nejm.org/what-is-risk-management-in-healthcare/ [Accessed 26 Jan. 2019].

Powers, B. W., Chaguturu, S. K., & Ferris, T. G. (2015). Optimizing high-risk care management. Jama, 313(8), 795-796. 

Wrnmmc.capmed.mil. (2019). Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. [online] Available at: http://www.wrnmmc.capmed.mil/SitePages/home.aspx [Accessed 26 Jan. 2019].