Risk and Safety Assessments

Every medical specialty and clinical environment carries its own specific professional liability risks and patient safety challenges.

Drawing upon nearly 40 years of risk management and claims expertise, as well as our commitment to promoting best practices in patient safety, the CAPAssurance program offers its clients comprehensive, specialty-specific risk assessment and support to help identify areas of risk exposure and improve quality and patient safety.

Specialty-specific risk assessments are available for:

• Hospitalists
• Neonatology
• Radiology
• Anesthesiology
• Transitional Care
• Psychiatry

CAPAssurance can conduct an assessment of the hospital discharge process to improve patient safety and reduce hospital readmissions. Upon request, and working with your risk manager, your CAPAssurance consultant will conduct a thorough assessment of your hospital discharge practices.  This assessment includes:

• Evaluation of adverse event and readmissions data
• Review of the hospital discharge policy
• Qualitative assessment of discharge education and written discharge materials
• Review of current efforts to coordinate care between the hospital team and post-discharge providers
• Evaluation of “patient- and family-centric” care practices and discharge processes.

The assessment may also include interviews with staff and patients at the point of discharge. Within 30 days of completing the assessment, your consultant will provide a report of findings including recommended risk reduction strategies, strategies to improve patient satisfaction, and a list of resources and best practice innovations designed to make discharge safer and easier for patients and their families.

Your CAPAssurance consultant, working hand-in-hand with the hospital risk manager, will conduct a comprehensive assessment of all major areas of service using a risk mapping tool. The risk mapping process helps identify and prioritize risk across all major hospital services.  This onsite survey generally takes two days to complete and encompasses the following:

• Interviews with select administrative and clinical personnel
• Review of policies and procedures, medical staff bylaws, and quality improvement plan
• Review of logbooks and tracking systems utilized by departments, such as ED, Radiology, etc.
• Review of clinical competency and education files of select personnel
• Review of credentialing files for select medical staff and allied professionals
• Tours of clinical departments
• An extensive review of medical records and documentation across hospital services

Within 60 days of the assessment, your consultant will present a formal report of findings identifying specific areas of professional liability exposure.  The report will include a Risk Reduction and Patient Safety Improvement Plan recommending risk reduction strategies and select CAPAssurance resources to support the hospital’s improvement efforts.