Risk management is a critically important part of providing healthcare and, you might be surprised to learn, goes far beyond dealing with medical errors.  In fact, modern risk management encompasses most aspects of healthcare operations, including HR and finances.  When Marlene Icenhower, who has degrees in nursing and law, first got into risk management decades ago, it was largely reactive in nature. “It had to do with the process that occurred after a medical mishap, and it was pretty much confined to just the clinical arena and the legal mop-up that took place after that event.” Over the past several decades, however, it's evolved into a function that's more proactive. “The idea now is to look for trends, issues, or lapses and then implement measures to fix them before they result in injury to a patient.” Icenhower is a senior risk specialist at Coverys, one of the largest medical malpractice insurance companies in the country, and spends a good deal of her time answering questions and brainstorming with providers around the country about everything from telehealth regulations to what should be done when a patient leaves against medical advice.  In this conversation with host Shiv Gaglani, Icenhower talks about finding the “why” behind education, how COVID is changing healthcare, and what she wishes medical and nursing schools would spend more time teaching. 

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