In patient care, what is the ethical role of risk managers?

A patient’s rights to self-determination or a health professional’s judgments in some cases can deviate from the standard of care. When this happens, it can challenge a health care risk manager’s tendency to implement routine legal risk-mitigation strategies. The risk manager plays a vital role in situations in which a patient does not progress clinically, does not feel safe or satisfied with their services, when interventions are not well coordinated, or when care is not safely, efficiently or equitably executed.

Health care risk managers can collaborate with ethics consultants, physicians and other health professionals to help health systems and organizations properly respond to complex questions around caregiving, ethics and law.

The November issue of AMA Journal of Ethics^® (@JournalofEthics) features numerous perspectives on risk management ethics. It also gives you an opportunity to earn CME credit.

Articles include:

1. How should risk managers respond to cases for which no risk profile exists?

   Risk managers can help patient-subjects and clinician-researchers make informed novel device implantation decisions in the absence of preclinical trial data.

2. What Is an ethically informed approach to managing patient safety risk during discharge planning?

   Patients leaving against medical advice draw attention to intersections of tort law, federal and state regulations, and clinical ethics.

3. How might artificial intelligence applications impact risk management?

   AI models might advance human welfare in unprecedented ways, but progress will not occur without substantial risks that will have to be managed.

4. A call for behavioral emergency response teams in inpatient hospital settings

   Psychiatric emergencies, coping stress reactions, and iatrogenic injuries are not responded to with the same vigor as acute medical decompensation. That needs to change.

In the Journal’s November podcast, John Banja, PhD, discusses the promises and perils of artificial intelligence in health care applications, including potential “megarisks” posed by artificial intelligence tools.

Banja is a professor and medical ethicist at Emory University in Atlanta. He is also the editor of the journal AJOB Neuroscience, and is the author of the book, Patient safety ethics: How vigilance, mindfulness, compliance, and humility can make healthcare safer. 

Listen to previous episodes of the podcast, “Ethics Talk,” or subscribe in iTunes or other services.

The AMA Journal of Ethics  CME modules, “How might artificial intelligence applications impact risk management?,” as well as, “A call for behavioral emergency response teams in inpatient hospital settings” and “How hospital leaders and risk managers can nurture ethics-driven lawyering,” are each designated by the AMA for a maximum of 1 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™.

Additionally, the CME module, “Ethics talk: Managing health care ai ‘megarisks’,” is designated by the AMA for a maximum of 0.50 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™.

The offering is part of the AMA Ed Hub™, an online learning platform that brings together high-quality CME, maintenance of certification, and educational content—in one place—with relevant learning activities, automated credit tracking and reporting for some states and specialty boards.

Learn more about AMA CME accreditation. 

The journal’s editorial focus is on commentaries and articles that offer practical advice and insights for medical students and physicians. Submit a manuscript for publication.

Upcoming issues of the AMA Journal of Ethics will focus on socially situated brain death as well as legacies of the holocaust in health care. Sign up to receive email alerts when new issues are published.