OPERATIONAL RISKS MANAGEMENT IN HOSPITAL FACILITIES OF THE CZECH REPUBLIC

Abstract

The issue of risks in health care is closely related to the quality of health care provided and the area of safety for all those who participate in providing this care in any way. In healthcare facilities and other organizations in the public and private sectors, risk management is an integral part of management processes. It is gaining in importance, especially in connection with ensuring the safety of patients, which, together with the quality of treatment, is becoming the primary task of the management of individual medical facilities. The primary research carried out by the author's team in 2020 showed significant shortcomings in the implemented risk management tools in hospitals in the Czech Republic. The situation was not so serious yet. For more than a year, the Czech Republic and the whole world have been fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. It pointed out several weaknesses in managing healthcare organizations' operations and the inadequacy in managing the risks themselves. Therefore, the article focuses on the operational risks of healthcare organizations, the level of risk management, and possible scenarios for their solution. The authors focused on selected hospitals in the Czech Republic, and risk analysis methods of the risk matrix type are used to identify and evaluate risks. Attention will also be focused on personnel risks, as the lack of medical and non-medical staff fundamentally cripples the operation of hospitals. Data for processing were obtained by personal and telephone interviews with the leaders of these institutions.