Risk Management Handbook for Health Care Organizations. - book reviews

Healthcare Financial Management, May, 1998 by Victoria Morgan

Edited by Roberta Carroll American Hospital Publishing, Inc. Chicago, Illinois, 1997 $95.00; 610 pages

Risk Management Handbook for Healthcare Organizations is a comprehensive guide to risk management in the 1990s. About 40 contributing authors provide up-to-date information on current trends in health care and cite legal cases from as recently as 1996.

A number of chapters provide step-by-step measures on how to implement important risk-management functions. The book also covers risk management issues beyond traditional hospital-based, clinically focused areas and sets the groundwork for performing risk management functions in a variety of healthcare settings.

Risk Management Handbook is divided into four sections, moving from basics to specific "hot" issues. It is well indexed to assist readers who wish to use the book as a reference.

Part one, "Foundations of Health Care Risk Management," begins with chapters that cover the basics of risk management, including job descriptions and reporting relationships.

Part two, "Risk Identification and Analysis," provides an in-depth discussion of how to identify areas where risk management principles should be applied, including clinical, occupational, environmental, and corporate (eg, mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures) areas. The chapter on mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures identifies areas where risk managers can help management insulate the organization from unanticipated costs by more effectively analyzing possible risk and enhancing the risk management function throughout the organization. Important steps of the due-diligence process that can be affected by risk management are presented for the reader to use as a guide.

Part three, "Risk Management Techniques," addresses informed consent, treatment termination, data management, disaster preparedness, and the risk manager's role in contract review. In the chapter on data management, the authors review issues involving data confidentiality, retention, security, and release, especially with regard to electronic records and electronic records and electronic data interchange. Other chapters in part three address human resources and litigation management issues.

The final section, "Implementation and Monitoring of the Risk Management Program," describes the steps involved in developing a risk management program, including how healthcare organizations can use information technologies, such as the Internet, and benchmarking.

Risk management has changed considerably over the years. Risk Management Handbook provides essential information for novices in this field, as well as relatively up-to-date information for seasoned professionals.

Reviewed by Victoria Morgan, FHFMA, consultant, Morgan & Associates, Sylmar, California, and a member of HFMA's Southern California Chapter.