ERM-BC-COOP: Risk Management vs. "risk management"

I live in Hollywood, Florida.

Hollywood is in south Florida, read "geriatric" Florida; lots of seniors.

South Florida also is a megopolis; what used to be a series of small communities from Homestead, south of Miami, to West Palm Beach now is one big traffic jam - translation, there are LOTS of people in south Florida.

Both the general head count and the geriatric head count translate into the need for many heath care facilities - hospitals, extended care facilities, nursing homes, etc.

All of these "health care" facilities need risk management.

The State of Florida, in its wisdom, mandates that in order for a person to be employed as a risk manager in a health care facility, the person must be certified by the State.

Since I am looking for new employment, and since I am an experienced and certified enterprise risk management practitioner (inquiries to JohnGlennMBCI at gmail dot com) I checked into the certification requirements.

The State requires that candidates for certification take one of three "programs." The programs generally are provided by a State university.

The University of South Florida (USF) - which is in Tampa on Florida's Gulf coast and not, as the name implies, in "south" Florida - offers a 120-hour on-line course for "only" $800. I use the USF course as an example because USF has the best Web presence for this program.

According to the USF site (http://www.cme.hsc.usf.edu/hcrm/), the program topics include

• History and Purpose of Risk Management
• Health Care Standards and Regulations Impacting Long Term Care
• Elements of Negligence, Liability, Malpractice and Managing Insurance Claims
• Methods for Identifying Risk Exposure in Hospitals, Ambulatory Surgical Centers and Long Term Care
• Risk Control Techniques to Reduce Patient Errors and Increase Patient Safety
• Systems Linking Risk Management with Quality Improvement

According to USF, the course would be of interest to professionals in the following disciplines:

• Administrators
• Chiropractors (DCs)*
• Disability Management Specialist
• Emergency Med. Tech. (EMTs)*
• Licensed Practical Nurses (LPNs)*
• Pharmacists (PharmDs, RPh’s)*
• Physicians (MDs, DOs)*
• Podiatrists (DPMs)*
• Radiology Technologists (RTs)*
• Respiratory Therapists (RRTs)*
• Registered Nurses (RNs)*

*  Eligible for licensure through the State of Florida.

At the conclusion of this course, participants should be able to:

• Discuss the history and purpose of risk management
• Recognize and apply healthcare standards and regulations
• Identify methods to mitigate risk exposure in a clinical setting
• Recognize environmental and occupational risk exposures
• Apply risk control techniques to reduce patient errors and increase patient safety
• Utilize quality improvement techniques and tools
• Comprehend elements of negligence, liability, medical malpractice, and management of insurance claims
• Implement systems linking risk management with quality improvement

All well and good. Rather narrowly focused from an enterprise perspective, but not bad.

Ahh, here comes the kicker.

As I look at the faculty, I see people with the following alphabet soup behind their names (listed alphabetically): ARM, BSN, CPCU, CPHRM, DrPH, JD, LHRM, MBA, MPH, MPP, Ph.D, RN.

No DRII or BCI certifications. No certifications from the lesser-known certifying organizations.

CPHRM = "Certified Professional in Healthcare Risk Management" (http://www.aha.org/aha/Certification-Center/CPHRM/index.html

LHRM = "Licensed Healthcare Risk Manager" for which I failed to find a Web site

There is, by the way, an American Society for Healthcare Risk Management (http://www.ashrm.org/

ASHRM sells a 7-day CPHRM prep course for US$250 that has the following main topics (http://www.ashrm.org/ashrm/education/programs/cphrm/webinar.shtml:

• Orientation
• Session 1: Operations & Ethics
• Session 2: Loss Prevention & Reduction Part 1
• Session 3: Loss Prevention & Reduction, Part 2
• Session 4: Risk Financing Part 1
• Session 5: Risk Financing Part 2/Claims
• Session 6: Regulatory/Accreditation Compliance

Sessions 2 and 3 promise "To examine components of the risk management process including, but not limited to, risk identification, risk analysis, risk control, high risk settings, clinical risk management, and patient safety." That suggests that there is some risk management expectations that we would appreciate.

I am left wondering, where is risk identification? Where is risk prioritization; even in the health care environment there is limited coin to expend on risk avoidance and mitigation.

Florida requires certification for health care risk managers, but does it really require these certified people to understand true (enterprise) risk management or does the State-certified risk manager have a single focus, as does the IT "risk manager."

I'm trying to find out.

John Glenn, MBCI
Enterprise Risk Management practitioner
Hollywood/Fort Lauderdale Florida
JohnGlennMBCI at gmail dot com

Seeking employment in -- or from -- southeast Florida