The COVID-19 pandemic has brought with it an onslaught of challenges for healthcare organizations. Many of these issues, whether obviously or more ambiguously, are tied to the organization’s overall approach to risk management. In a recent article published by the Heath Care Compliance Association's monthly periodical Compliance Today, Sarah Couture and Jeff Driver discussed risk management lessons that are coming out of the pandemic as well as an admonition to further enhance Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) efforts.
Overview
While many healthcare organizations have siloed approaches to managing a variety of risks, many have not yet prioritized the establishment of a collaborative, enterprise-wide approach to risk. The pandemic has displayed, among other things, the need to act quickly, decisively and nimbly to best address the rapidly-changing public health and regulatory landscapes. An ERM program can help enable this goal. By facilitating communication across risk area silos and weighing a variety of risks against one another, ERM can enable rapid prioritization and action to promote the most beneficial outcomes. This article explores a variety of risk management concepts and ultimately encourages the reader to take steps to establish and implement an effective ERM plan or to evaluate and retool existing ERM efforts to ensure they are updated and in accordance with industry standards.
Takeaways
- Healthcare organizations should revisit enterprise risk management (ERM) in response to the pandemic, either to start ERM programs or retool current ERM efforts.
- Managers of operational risk should not just work in silos to address relevant risk but instead work collaboratively as part of an ERM framework.
- Compliance officers should participate in ERM and collaborate with those leading ERM programs.
- Ultimately, the board and senior leadership should set the tone for ERM and should encourage ERM work.
- Healthcare organizations should consider what learning lessons come out of the pandemic risk to help the organization become more resilient.
Please download the PDF of the full article below.
This article was originally published in Compliance Cosmos. Copyright 2021 Compliance Today, a publication of the Health Care Compliance Association (HCCA).
© Copyright 2021. The views expressed herein are those of the author(s) and not necessarily the views of Ankura Consulting Group, LLC., its management, its subsidiaries, its affiliates, or its other professionals. Ankura is not a law firm and cannot provide legal advice.
