BMAT Risk Assessment & Management 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A hospital introduces a new surgical checklist to reduce wrong-site surgeries. Which type of risk control strategy does this represent?
- Elimination
- Substitution
- Administrative control (Correct answer)
- Engineering control
Correct answer: Administrative control
Checklists are administrative controls because they rely on procedural compliance rather than physically removing or engineering out the hazard.
Question 2: In a risk matrix, a hazard rated as 'likelihood: rare' and 'consequence: catastrophic' is typically classified as:
- Low risk
- Moderate risk
- High risk (Correct answer)
- Extreme risk
Correct answer: High risk
A rare but catastrophic event generally falls into the high risk category, requiring active management despite low probability.
Question 3: Which principle underpins the ALARP (As Low As Reasonably Practicable) concept in risk management?
- Risks must be reduced to zero regardless of cost
- Risk reduction should continue until benefits equal costs (Correct answer)
- Only catastrophic risks require mitigation
- Risk reduction stops once regulations are satisfied
Correct answer: Risk reduction should continue until benefits equal costs
ALARP requires balancing the cost of further risk reduction against the benefit gained, stopping when they are broadly equal.
Question 4: A pharmaceutical company discovers a post-market safety signal for one of its drugs. The FIRST step in responding should be:
- Withdraw the drug immediately from market
- Conduct further investigation to verify the signal (Correct answer)
- Notify all prescribers by letter
- Update the product label
Correct answer: Conduct further investigation to verify the signal
A safety signal must be investigated to confirm causality before regulatory or clinical action is taken.
Question 5: In the context of clinical risk, 'near miss' events are valuable primarily because they:
- Provide grounds for staff disciplinary action
- Allow harm estimation without actual patient injury (Correct answer)
- Satisfy regulatory reporting requirements only
- Demonstrate that safety systems are working perfectly
Correct answer: Allow harm estimation without actual patient injury
Near misses reveal system weaknesses and allow organisations to learn and improve before actual harm occurs.
Question 6: When performing a Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA), which parameter is NOT typically scored?
- Severity of harm
- Detectability of the failure
- Cost of the corrective action (Correct answer)
- Probability of occurrence
Correct answer: Cost of the corrective action
FMEA scores severity, occurrence, and detectability to calculate a Risk Priority Number; cost is not a standard FMEA parameter.
Question 7: A risk that has been identified but for which no control measure is yet in place is best described as:
- Residual risk
- Inherent risk (Correct answer)
- Transferred risk
- Accepted risk
Correct answer: Inherent risk
Inherent risk is the raw, uncontrolled risk level before any mitigation or control measures are applied.
BMAT Risk Assessment & Management 2
A hospital introduces a new surgical checklist to reduce wrong-site surgeries.
Which type of risk control strategy does this represent?