This year’s Patient Safety Awareness Week, observed from March 9-15, highlights the critical importance of patient safety and encourages healthcare professionals and organizations to implement effective measures to improve patient outcomes. Approximately 1 in 10 patients experience harm in healthcare settings and around half of these cases are preventable. Prioritizing patient safety and implementing proactive risk management strategies can significantly reduce these preventable incidents and enhance overall healthcare quality.
Key Risks for 2025
Healthcare is a dynamic industry, and now more than ever, healthcare organizations are faced with managing a complex and evolving risk landscape. While some core challenges have persisted over the years, new issues are emerging, presenting an unfamiliar set of obstacles. A new report from the Emergency Care Research Institute (ECRI) and the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) underscores the most pressing patient safety risks and concerns impacting the healthcare industry. The top ten risks cited for 2025 are:
- Dismissing Patient, Family & Caregiver Concerns: Healthcare professionals care for a high volume of patients, spending a limited amount of time with each and largely communicating through multimodal technologies. This can result in strained communication and understanding between doctors, patients and caregivers.
- Insufficient Governance of Artificial Intelligence: AI is increasingly being used in a wide array of healthcare applications and technologies, but proper regulation policies are not following suit. While AI has its benefits, it also presents transparency and security concerns.
- Availability & Spread of Medical Misinformation: Medical misinformation is spreading more rapidly than ever before, fueled by the internet and social media, with an increasing number of people turning to these sources for information.
- Cybersecurity Breaches: Cybersecurity risks have become extremely prevalent and persistent concerns in the healthcare sector. A cyber incident or breach can cause medical errors and delays and have grave organizational, financial and reputational repercussions.
- Caring for Veterans: Veterans often experience complex physical and emotional health issues. Without proper training, healthcare providers may miss the mark on effective care.
- Substandard and Falsified Drugs: Substandard and Falsified (SF) drugs are made to mimic legitimate pharmaceutical manufacturers’ medications. This illegal practice has become a major global business and is detrimental to patient safety worldwide.
- Diagnostic Errors: Diagnostic errors, or misdiagnoses, have long been a persistent issue in healthcare, contributing significantly to preventable patient harm. Most serious diagnostic errors can be attributed to cancers, vascular events and infections, also known as “The Big Three.”
- Healthcare-Associated Infections in Long-Term Care Facilities: Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) occur due to healthcare complications and are often caused by multidrug-resistant organisms. The incidence of HAIs in long-term care facilities is on the rise.
- Discharge Communication & Coordination: Successful patient discharge and recovery is contingent on effective communication between stakeholders. Inadequate communication, especially during handoffs and discharge, is a common cause of medical errors.
- Community Pharmacy Working Conditions: The poor working conditions affecting community pharmacists have been exacerbated in recent years, jeopardizing patient safety and staff well-being.
Targeted Healthcare Risk Management Solutions
RCM&D’s Healthcare Practice brings extensive experience in managing complex risks. We offer targeted risk management solutions to address a wide range of issues affecting the healthcare industry, from innovative care delivery models to cyber threats and regulatory risks. Our comprehensive approach includes:
- Risk Assessments: Our team can conduct thorough risk assessments to identify and analyze your organization’s unique exposures, providing tailored recommendations to mitigate these risks.
- Clinical Risk Consulting: We offer clinical risk consulting services to help healthcare providers navigate the complexities of patient care, ensuring safety and compliance.
- Cybersecurity Solutions: With the increasing prevalence of cyber threats, our team provides robust cybersecurity strategies to protect your organization from potential breaches and their repercussions.
- Workforce Risk Management: We address workforce-related risks, offering solutions to enhance employee safety and well-being, which in turn improves patient care.
- Alternative Risk Financing: Our alternative risk financing solutions are designed to be responsive to current market conditions, providing financial stability and support for your organization.
- Corporate Compliance: We assist in developing and maintaining corporate compliance programs to ensure adherence to regulatory requirements and industry standards.
Reach Out to an Advisor
Our risk professionals are dedicated to helping you manage and mitigate risks effectively. Contact us today to learn more about how we can support your organization’s unique risk management needs.