This course will cover a number of topic areas including: The risk management process (i.e., identification, assessment, mitigation), methods for identifying and ranking top clinical and other risks using data from a range of patient safety and risk management sources; Strategies for integrating organizational risk management, quality improvement and patient safety activities; Methods for identifying, managing, and investigating critical incidents, and for implementing and sustaining effective commendations for improvement; Principles and practices for disclosure of adverse events; Relevant legislation and regulations (e.g., the public hospital act, disclosure, apology, consent and capacity, etc.); The rationale and legal protection for quality assurance activities; The medical-legal claims process and the effect of claims on patient safety and quality; The role of professional colleges in ensuring quality care, and potential issue related to the systems approach to patient safety and implementation of a just culture; The role of the coroner in patient safety; The role of accreditation in ensuring quality and in influencing organizational priority setting in patient safety and quality. The course will include didactic pre-reading, lectures from leading experts, group discussion, and in-class simulations.

Objectives: 1) Identify and assess the range of clinical and non-clinical risks within a health care organization and apply a structured methodology to identify high priority risks requiring leadership and governance attention; 2) Recognize the linkage between risk management, quality improvement and patient safety functions and understand how they can be effectively integrated within an organization; 3) Categorize the multiple sources of risk management data (including incident reports, critical incident investigations, patient complaints, medical legal claims, M&M reviews, alerts, audits, etc.), and outline strategies to obtain actionable information from data mining efforts; 4) Recognize the significant laws and regulations which govern health care quality and safety; 5) Understand the unique relationship between physicians and hospitals and describe the important role of credentialing of health care professionals in ensuring quality care; 6) Formulate arguments both for and against the protection of quality assurance information in health care; 7) Understand the civil litigation process and factors which may contribute to an adverse event proceeding to a medical malpractice claim; 8) Describe the challenges associated with identifying and managing critical incidents and outline the elements of successful investigation and follow up; 9) Outline the rationale for disclosure of adverse events to patients, debate the evidence regarding the effect of disclosure on medical malpractice claims, and analyze and critique disclosure skills; 10) Understand the mandate and activities of the coroner's office, professional colleges, and accreditation, and debate their role in advancing health care quality and safety.