Risk Management Essays
At the Westgard Workshops 2011, a hot topic of discussion was the issue of Detectability. Whether or not to include it in the Risk Analysis methodology being promoted to the medical laboratory community. There are several arguments for eliminating detection from Risk Analysis. But should we really do away with Detectability?
Risk Management has been in the news over the past few years. In some cases, Risk Management has failed us, and failed us badly (see global financial meltdown, 2008). In other fields, Risk Management is being promoted as the solution to our problems (see POC devices, EQC options, from 2003-2011) . How do balance the strengths and weaknesses of Risk Management? By tapping the strength of another quality management technique: Six Sigma.
Risk Analysis. Risk Management. It all sounds good. Very few people in the world will argue against doing some kind of Risk Analysis and Management. But just exactly what kind of analysis should you do? What's a practical approach?
What are the Risks of Risk Management? In this essay, we discuss known weaknesses (failure modes) of the Risk Asssessment process, as outlined in recent (2009-2010) reports from the Interntional Risk Governance Council, and relate those failure modes to the medical laboratory.
One of the critical early steps of Risk Management is Risk Assessment. There are a multitude of approaches to Risk Assessment, with varying degrees of complexity. Dr. Westgard examines the different approaches and makes recommendations on optimization and customization of these techniques for the healthcare laboratory. (Preview)