In an effort to enhance risk management practices across all departments of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, a number of Risk Champions have been selected to cover the service across HMC. The first batch of Risk Champions received education on the basic principles, responsibilities, steps of risk management and how to use risk registers for recording all identified risks and monitoring and communicating risks across different levels of the organization internally within each facility as well as through the corporate discipline specific risk management committee.
A total of 44 participants attended this first session comprising of laboratory technologist in various DLMP units e.g. Hematology, Immunology, POCT, Molecular Genetics, etc. In attendance also was Dr. Walid Al-Wali, Vice-Chair of Clinical Pathology, Senior Consultant Medical Microbiologist, DLMP.
Dr Moza in her opening remarks emphasizes that DLMP play an integral role in medical decision-making and as such must be reliable and accurate. It for this very reason why the Corporate QPS introduces risk management principles to our clinical laboratory team. In line, Dr. Moza stressed that an effective risk-management program focuses attention on and minimizes events that ideally should not occur. In the laboratory, risk-management issues can be divided along two major lines: (1) patient-care-related issues and (2) employee-related issues (safety). The concept of a formal risk-management program may be new to pathologists and laboratory professionals; the components of the program are traditional elements of laboratory policies and procedures. Key items identified as building blocks for risk management are these: (1) risk prevention, (2) risk identification, (3) risk assessment, (4) corrective actions, and (5) loss control. Through the systematic implementation of a comprehensive risk-management program, laboratories have the opportunity to reduce liability exposure and improve the quality of care and services. It is for these very reasons that Corporate QPS is running this program in DLMP. Dr. Moza also acknowledges Ms. Ebtisam Al Yafeai, DLMP’s Education and Training Program Lead for organizing the sessions.
A similar model of risk reporting and Risk Champions structure was previously piloted in Rumailah and QRI. The Corporate QPS department is aiming at rolling out this model across the whole enterprise by brining Enterprise Risk Management a consistent practice across all clinical and non-clinical functions in the organization. Trained Risk Champions across all HMC departments, clinical and non-clinical will be the resource people for detecting and reporting risks and facilitating change on the ground to mitigate potential risks to our patients, our staff and the HMC operation in general.
To learn more about Corporate QPS Risk and Patient Safety Programs, please contact Dr. Moza Alishaq or Dr. Farid Sohail at fsohail@hamad.qa
