The Impact of the Crisis on Healthcare Risk Management in Slovenia: The Case of Regional Hospitals

Abstract

The main purpose of the article is to identify which components of public internal financial control (PIFC), as part of risk management, have been improved by the crisis the most at the regional level, and what is the possible reason for that. During the period 2008–2014, healthcare in the EU and consequently in Slovenia was under the pressure of aggravated circumstances. Therefore, it is important that healthcare organizations, especially regional hospitals, as a main provider of secondary healthcare, have risk management tools in place that prevent risks and provide a reasonable assurance that public funds are being used for the intended purpose. To test which components significantly improved in that period, a paired-samples t-test is performed on a sample of 10 Slovenian regional hospitals. The empirical results show that the components of risk assessment and control activities saw the greatest improvement.