Risk Management & Mitigation Flashcards

A hospital experiences a wrong-site surgery. Under Joint Commission standards, how is this event classified?

Answer: Sentinel event

Wrong-site surgery is a sentinel event, a patient safety event resulting in death or severe harm that requires immediate investigation.

A consultant advising on HIPAA compliance identifies that laptops containing patient data are not encrypted. Which type of risk does this primarily represent?

Answer: Data security and privacy risk

Unencrypted devices with protected health information create a data breach risk under HIPAA's Security Rule.

Which element is essential for a 'just culture' approach to risk management?

Answer: Distinguishing between human error, at-risk behavior, and reckless behavior

Just culture balances accountability by responding differently to inadvertent error, risky shortcuts, and conscious disregard for safety.

A consultant calculates that a risk has a 10% annual probability and would cost $500,000 if it occurred. What is the annualized loss expectancy?

Answer: $50,000

Annualized loss expectancy equals probability times impact: 0.10 × $500,000 = $50,000.

A hospital decides to discontinue its obstetrics service line entirely because of unsustainable liability exposure. Which risk strategy is this?

Answer: Risk avoidance

Eliminating the activity that creates the risk is risk avoidance.

Which document should a consultant review first to understand how a client organization tracks and prioritizes its identified risks?

Answer: The risk register

A risk register is the central log of identified risks, their ratings, owners, and mitigation plans.

After a data breach, a client immediately notifies affected patients and offers credit monitoring. This response is an example of what?

Answer: Harm mitigation and incident response

Actions taken after an event to limit damage and meet obligations are part of incident response and mitigation.