What is risk management in healthcare?

• A. Identifying, assessing, and mitigating risks to patient safety and organizational liability.
• B. Increasing patient load.
• C. Reducing documentation.
• D. Limiting access to patient information.

Answer: (A)

Risk management in healthcare is about identifying hazards, assessing how likely they are and how much harm they could cause, and then putting steps in place to reduce or control those risks. It’s a proactive and reactive system that aims to protect patient safety and limit organizational liability. This includes activities like incident reporting, root cause analysis, implementing safety protocols, staff training, and ongoing monitoring to prevent recurrence and improve care processes.

The other options don’t fit because risk management isn’t about increasing patient load, which can heighten risk; it isn’t about reducing documentation, which would undermine accountability and safety tracking; and it isn’t about limiting access to patient information, which would compromise privacy and coordinated care.