Risk Mitigation

Healthcare is a high-risk industry that encounters various threats daily. Risk management in healthcare is the process used to prevent and reduce threats and harm to patients, staff, and the organization. Risk mitigation aims to prevent harm and reduce its effects through the assessment of the patient, staff, security, and organizational risk and safety events. The assessment of past risk events allows the organization to develop an appropriate risk mitigation plan, which can prevent or reduce future threats from occurring. The main risks in healthcare include cyber threats, physical threats, privacy breaches, healthcare-associated infections, and non-compliance.

In healthcare, both mitigation and contingency plans are utilized to protect patients, staff, and the organization. The mitigation plan meaning refers to strategies that are enforced in advance, regardless of whether a risk has occurred. Unlike a mitigation plan, a contingency plan refers to strategies that are enforced after a risk has occurred. A contingency plan is used to reduce the impact of the risk that has occurred, whereas a mitigation plan is used to prevent the risk from occurring.