It Starts at the Top: Proactively Assessing Risks Created by Organizational Executive Decisions

​The authors of an article published in a recent issue of the Journal of Healthcare Risk Management describe a tool and framework designed to proactively assess the latent risks of leadership decisions on the healthcare system. This assessment can help identify appropriate mitigation strategies before a change is implemented. According to the authors, most efforts to improve quality of care and patient safety focus on provider practice and frontline care processes; however, little attention is paid to the role that leadership decisions play in creating risks within a healthcare system. Such decisions—which may include, for example, choosing a new electronic health record system, changing staffing levels, setting rewards and incentives for patient care, or changing rules for supervision—have the potential to both negatively and positively impact patient safety.