The Leadership Walk Through Method for Risk Assessments

How you frame the Question…determines the Answer you get!

The FTCA program requires health center participants to complete four quarterly risk assessment plans.  Health centers are also required to submit quarterly action plans that document the follow up activities that were implemented to address the targeted risk management concern or goal.  There are multiple options to choose when deciding which quarterly risk assessment approach to use.  The leadership walk through method is a common approach used by many health centers.  Once this approach is chosen, there is one fundamental question left: How do we get the risk management assessment conversation started?  

Some helpful tips include:  

• Start off by defining what patient safety risk assessments are, explain why they are important to the organization, and why they are required by HRSA’s FTCA program which provides malpractice insurance to health centers.
• Define patient safety in the most basic, simple manner when speaking with non-clinical staff who may have observations to provide but are unfamiliar with advanced risk management terminology.
• Ask questions that lead to discussions about their observations, thoughts, and opinions regarding practical solutions that they may want to share with management. 
• Understand the importance of asking questions that are simply worded, succinct in nature, and that focus on how to prevent conditions that could lead to malpractice lawsuits.    

Completing quarterly risk management assessments can be a valuable way to connect with your staff and learn about their thoughts and ideas that can help achieve patient safety goals and outcomes.  Keep in mind that these discussions represent data collection efforts in the most basic sense. One fundamental fact about all data collection efforts is…how you frame the question will determine the answer you get.