Apollo Hospitals Enterprises Limited’s (AHEL) risk management policy is designed to prepare all divisions of the facility for potential risks that exist in the workplace. The procedure applies to all the business units of the entire company. Its main objectives include incorporating proactive risk management in daily business activities at the facility, ensuring that performance improves due to better decision-making, providing an appropriate avenue for risk escalation at the right time, and creating a risk-sensitive culture accompanying the organization’s pursuit of business opportunities. AHEL’s risk management steering committee is responsible for the company’s risk policy and its implementation (Apollo Hospitals, n.d).
Apollo Hospitals Enterprises Limited is a pioneer in delivering corporate healthcare in India. It is renowned as a leading player in the Asian private healthcare sector. The company manages several healthcare facilities and pharmacies across the continent. It also provides consultation services for the management of specialty facilities. The company started as a 150-bed facility in Chennai. The remarkable growth is evident in its 10,000 beds in at least 60 facilities, at least 1,500 pharmacies, more than 100 clinics offering primary care as well as diagnostics, more than 100 telemedicine units in 9 nations, health insurance services, consultancy, and 15 institutions for research and academic work (NDTV Convergence Limited, 2021). While managing such a wide network of facilities, it is important to anticipate risks in all business activities. Thus, a risk management policy is critical for smooth operations and better decision-making.
Risk management in healthcare is critical in ensuring that patient safety is maintained through the reduction of errors that would place at risk the hospital’s reputation and heighten financial liabilities. When dealing with a large network of healthcare facilities such as AHEL, it is important to prioritize patient safety and reduce liabilities that arise from risks that can increase financial liability (What Is Risk Management in Healthcare? 2018). The company’s widespread services and products make it an ideal player for this particular study.
The World Health Organization (WHO) outlines the main steps to manage risk. These include risk identification, assessment of frequency and severity, reduction/elimination of risk, and assessment of costs that the process saves. The fees the facility would incur if the risk eventuates can also be tabulated. The four aspects are founded on incident reporting. Following the appropriate incident reporting process achieves the four basics of risk management. Incident reporting must fulfill certain steps to be effective. These include a full description of the event, simple and practical, details that identify the time and location of the event and the concerned parties, physician’s examination information, and a question checklist (Singh, 2012). AHEL’s risk management policy adheres to these elements and provides a detailed description of each to ensure that all stakeholders have sufficient information. The risk management process in the procedure follows the World Health Organization’s proposed order.
Further, AHEL provides a list of risk categories, which should help healthcare providers during incident reporting. Each class is identified by a unique number and is accompanied by a comprehensive definition. Additional attachments include a risk register, assessment template, aggregate scorecard, and risk profile (Apollo Hospitals, n.d).
The National Association Board for Hospitals and Health Service Providers (NABH) is an Indian accreditation body. The agency’s role is to ensure that healthcare facilities maintain quality standards. Besides ensuring that quality standards are observed, the body also conducts training and offers recognition through endorsing healthcare courses and workshops (NABH, 2021). The Joint Commission International (JCI) is the Joint Commission on Accreditation for Healthcare Organizations’s (JCAHO) international arm. Its role is to accredit hospitals and issue certification to confirm the achievement of the ‘gold standard.’ These accreditations have been granted to at least 30 Asian healthcare facilities (Tandulwadikar & Chigullapalli, 2021). Both agencies play an oversight role in risk management by setting patient safety standards that facilities should meet. Assessing the achievement of these standards through healthcare practices and equipment available at facilities enable