Fostering risk management in healthcare units using grey systems theory

Abstract

Purpose – The identification of the main risk triggers is essential for the hospital’s survival and performance with direct effects on its patients’ health and well-being. For this reason, in this paper some of the most important risk categories have been determined. While in a previous research a qualitative analysis has been done for determining which are the most important risks felt by the patient that are believed to affect their health through the usage of a questionnaire and through conducting a confirmatory factor analysis, the purpose of this paper is to analyze the quantitative side of these risks’ presence in a hospital. Design/methodology/approach – On this purpose, four main categories of risks have been considered (the same as in the qualitative research) and they have been analyzed from the hospital’s point of view – through the usage of the hospital financial and internal documents. Therefore, a series of indicators have been determined for each risk category. After that, a representative indicator has been selected and the grey incidence analysis has been conducted. Findings – By comparing the results gathered form this study with the qualitative analysis conducted among the patients (Delcea et al., 2016) it can be said that there can be seen a difference among the way a hospital and a patient perceive the risks within a medical activity. While for the hospital, the most affecting risk is the technological and hospital conditions risk, for the patients the most affecting risk seems to be the human resources and clinical risk. The mismanagement risk and inability to treat patients is the second in intensity for both the hospital and patients, with a smaller value in the patients’ case. Practical implications – From here, the research can be extended for capturing the risks that are considered to be important for the medical stuff, which will permit us to have a global image over the healthcare risks. After that, a comparative analysis among the hospitals with different financial performance can be conducted in order to see how these risks are affecting their performance and to determine which can be the decisions that can fostering the reduction of these risks. Originality/value – The present paper offers a quantitative analysis from the hospital’s point of view using the advantages offered by the grey systems theory. Combining this analysis with a qualitative one conducted on the patients, the managers of the hospital can a have a more adequate view over the risks that they are facing with. In this context, grey systems theory offers the needed methods for dealing with such situations.