On-Demand Learning Lab - Elevating Quality Through Proactive Risk Management-Learning Lab Recording

Video Transcription

Video Summary

Jamie Verde, VP of Risk Management at Emory Healthcare, explains how embedding risk management within the Office of Quality supports safer care by partnering closely with quality, patient safety, legal, clinical leaders, and operations. She outlines proactive risk management tools: system-wide education (e.g., informed consent, documentation, advance directives and decision-making authority), policy development and interpretation (AMA, capacity/refusal, behavioral health, complex discharges), and targeted risk assessments driven by trends seen in event reports, claims, and grievances. A detailed example focuses on behavioral health patients in overcrowded emergency departments, where inconsistent screening, documentation gaps, and unclear discharge criteria increased post-discharge suicide risk. Interventions included implementing a standardized suicide screening tool (Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale), clarifying documentation expectations, monitoring compliance and outcomes across multiple EDs, strengthening escalation pathways (including 24/7 risk consults), and creating/clarifying behavioral health management policies. Verde emphasizes that transparent, non-punitive safety event reporting—especially near misses—enables early identification of system vulnerabilities, shared learning, and timely prevention. She describes collaboration on event triage and reviews (peer review, RCA/ACA), prioritizing by harm severity, recurrence risk, reporting requirements, and litigation potential. Finally, she highlights a robust disclosure and apology program as an ongoing, coached, patient-centered communication process, noting legal considerations such as Georgia’s apology law protecting certain expressions of sympathy from being used as liability evidence.

Keywords

healthcare risk management

patient safety and quality

suicide screening in emergency departments

Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale (C-SSRS)

safety event reporting and near misses

root cause analysis (RCA) and event triage

disclosure and apology program (Georgia apology law)