title: Using clinical risk management as a means of enhancing patient safety: the Irish experience.
abstract: This paper outlines the process and context in which the Clinical Risk Modification Project at Sligo Hospital, Ireland was established and focuses on the issues encountered from conception to implementation. The project is based in the emergency and orthopaedic departments and is of two years duration. The stated aim of this project is to design and test a framework incorporating the core components of a workable Clinical Risk Modification programme in the context of an Irish general hospital. This involved making an explicit commitment to the principles of a learning organisation including blame free risk reporting, providing education and awareness training to promote understanding of clinical risk management locally, and developing a clinical incident/near miss reporting system to address clinical risk in both a proactive and reactive way.
authors.affiliation: North Western Health Board, Sligo Hospital, Sligo, Ireland.
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: McElhinney
authors.forename: Orla
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Heffernan
mesh_terms: D005568:Forms and Records Control; D006745:Hospital Bed Capacity, 300 to 499; D006769:Hospitals, General / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000592:standards*; D006779:Hospitals, Public / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D007324:Institutional Management Teams; D019300:Medical Errors / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D009660:Northern Ireland; D019982:Organizational Case Studies; D016730:Program Development; D012308:Risk Management / Q000379:methods / Q000458:organization & administration*; D017751:Safety Management / Q000379:methods; D013192:Staff Development; D013222:State Medicine / Q000592:standards; D013597:Systems Analysis