Learning Lab: Navigating Risk in Healthcare Quality and Safety-Learning Lab: Navigating Risk in Healthcare Quality and Safety Session

Video Transcription

Video Summary

The NACU Learning Lab, “Navigating Risk in Healthcare Quality and Safety,” featured Carolyn Bailey and Brenda Barton from Blessing Health System. The session focused on how healthcare organizations can use enterprise risk management to identify, assess, and mitigate clinical, operational, regulatory, and reputational risks while strengthening quality and patient safety.<br /><br />The presenters emphasized breaking down silos and making risk management a cross-functional, proactive process involving leaders, frontline staff, executives, and boards. They described Blessing’s framework for risk identification, assessment, response, monitoring, and reporting, including heat maps, risk owners, and regular committee review. They also highlighted ways to identify risk through rounding, surveys, incident reports, patient complaints, meeting minutes, external safety alerts, and accrediting body guidance.<br /><br />A major theme was the close partnership between quality and risk teams. Examples included daily safety huddles, weekly interdisciplinary meetings, root cause analyses, FMEAs, debriefings, and follow-up on action items. They shared case examples involving an Epic electronic health record implementation, allergy alert workflow, sepsis, stroke, falls, and critical care deterioration, showing how data-driven reviews can lead to real improvements.<br /><br />The presenters also discussed regulatory and accreditation influences from CMS, DNV, Joint Commission, AHRQ, and patient safety laws, stressing that these requirements support a culture of transparency and continuous improvement. Their conclusion: safety, quality, and risk management should work together, stay visible, and engage staff early to prevent harm and improve outcomes.

Keywords

enterprise risk management

healthcare quality

patient safety

risk mitigation

clinical risk

operational risk

regulatory compliance

quality improvement

root cause analysis

cross-functional collaboration