The Role of the Healthcare Risk Manager: A Primer
August 22, 2014 | Health System Risk Management
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The professional training and backgrounds of healthcare risk managers are very diverse. Many risk managers began their careers in other professions. The most common professional backgrounds among the ranks of healthcare risk managers include nursing, law, insurance, healthcare administration, and finance. The American Society for Healthcare Risk Management (ASHRM), the professional society of healthcare risk managers, reports that the percentage of healthcare risk managers with baccalaureate degrees is about equal to that of risk managers with master's degrees (34% for baccalaureate degrees and 37% for master's degrees). With an additional 13% of risk managers reporting that they had obtained a doctorate, 50% of healthcare risk managers have graduate-level experience. (Amori et al.)
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Despite risk managers' different professional and educational backgrounds, there are common characteristics that are essential for a successful career in risk management. The ability to communicate, negotiate, remain objective, uphold confidentiality, and exercise analytical skills are the qualities that comprise the skill set necessary to be an effective risk manager.
The scope of risk managers' responsibilities varies among organizations and depends on the organization's structure, size, and other characteristics, such as type of risk financing arrangements. With healthcare organizations expanding their scope to the continuum of care, the focus of risk managers expands, too, requiring them...