Understanding your organization’s risks

For John Wren at Pembroke Regional Hospital, joining HIROC’s IRM and Risk Register Program wasn’t looked at as an add-on or an extra piece of work – “It was a synergy of the things we were already doing,” he said.

This was the feeling in the room at HIROC’s IRM Risk Register Clinic held on May 1 in Toronto. Attended by over 100 subscribers across Canada, the clinic offered a chance for healthcare risk management staff and leadership in subscriber organizations to talk about their experiences with Integrated Risk Management (IRM / ERM) and identify opportunities for growth in their own processes.

As the Senior VP, Finance and Corporate Services, CFO and CIO, Wren talked delegates through Pembroke’s experience using the Risk Register from a senior leader’s perspective. That included the roles of both board and senior leadership in managing the organization’s risks. When done this way, said Wren, “Risk becomes one of the elements in the conversation and not just an afterthought.”

Matthew Calvert, Quality, Safety and Risk Coordinator from CHEO was in agreement that assigning the ownership and reporting of risks to specific individuals is key. At CHEO each risk has a subject matter expert (SME) and two leads – each who play a role in linking the risk to corporate strategies and claims.

Calvert offered delegates tips for success in terms of fostering ownership based on his organization’s experience; including:

• Ensure you have top-down support from executive leadership.
• Demonstrate the value add; IRM can’t be seen as an added job.
• Consult and be transparent with the whole organization. Show staff and leadership how all the pieces fit together.
• Provide SMEs the tools to enable consistent assessment.

For Calvert organizations need to move toward proactive action and avoid thinking that if it hasn’t been a problem it won’t be one going forward. Organizations should also avoid judgement, “Make it clear that each risk is being assessed individually and that it is not a comparative to other risks or people.”

Delegates also heard from Renee Blomme, Manager Patient Experience and Corporate Risk at North York General Hospital on their use of the tool to track never events. Blomme stressed the importance of identifying super users who know the system inside and out and then transfer that to the onboarding process. “There’s nothing wrong with handholding,” said Blomme when talking about getting new users up to speed.

At Bruyère Continuing Care in Ottawa Christopher Sorfleet agrees that in those early days you may have to walk users through the system to get them comfortable. “It’s about sitting down and having that one-on-one conversation,” said Sorfleet, the Acting Director of Quality, Patient Safety and Risk Management. 

Regardless of what stage of IRM implementation delegates were at, many walked away with some valuable insights. As was said repeatedly by speakers and delegates alike – having the ability to hear from others and compare processes and data with other organizations is a key opportunity. “At no cost to subscribers, it’s clear that HIROC recognizes the value of IRM,” said Wren.

For more information on the Clinic or the Risk Register program itself, reach out to a member of our Risk Management team at riskmanagement@hiroc.com.

Michelle Holden is Communications and Marketing Specialist, HIROC