Risk Management in Health Information Management

Healthcare organizations face legal, ethical, and operational risks every dayespecially related to health information, patient privacy, documentation, and decision-making. In this assignment, students will analyze a realistic healthcare scenario and apply risk management principles to identify risks, assess impact, and propose mitigation strategies grounded in law and ethics. By completing this assignment, students will be able to: Identify legal and ethical risks in healthcare scenarios Apply basic risk management concepts (risk identification, likelihood, impact, mitigation) Connect healthcare laws and ethical principles to organizational decision-making Communicate risk mitigation strategies clearly and professionally Scenario: A Health Information Management department receives a request for medical records from an attorney representing a patient in a personal injury case. Due to a misfiled authorization form and failure to verify identifiers, the HIM professional releases the patients medical records to the wrong attorney, who is representing a different individual. The error is discovered two weeks later when the patient calls the hospital questioning why their attorney never received the records. Assignment Tasks: Task 1: Risk Identification Students will need to identify at least three risks created by the ROI error. Your risks must include: One legal risk One ethical risk One organizational or operational risk For each risk, students should: Describe the risk clearly Identify who is affected (patient, provider, organization, HIM staff, etc.) Task 2: Risk Assessment For each of the identified risk, students should assess the: Likelihood: Low / Medium / High Impact: Low / Medium / High Briefly explain why you chose each rating (minimum of 2 sentences per risk). Example: Likelihood: Medium ROI errors occur when authorization processes are not standardized or audited. Task 3: Legal and Ethical Analysis Students need to consider the following and address the: Legal Component: Identify at least one applicable law or regulation (e.g., HIPAA Privacy Rule, state privacy laws). Explain how the organization may be noncompliant. Identify potential legal consequences (e.g., fines, complaints, lawsuits). Ethical Component: Identify one ethical principle impacted (e.g., autonomy, nonmaleficence, beneficence, justice). Explain how the ROI error violates or challenges this principle. Task 4: Risk Mitigation Strategies Students will now need to propose two realistic strategies to reduce the risk of future ROI errors. Examples include: Changes to authorization verification procedures Staff training or competency checks Double-verification workflows Audit and monitoring processes EHR or ROI software safeguards Students for each strategy should: Describe the action Explain how it reduces legal and ethical risk Task 5: Reflection In a paragraph (200 words minimum), answer: Why is release of information considered a high-risk function in HIM? What role do HIM professionals play in protecting patient rights and reducing organizational risk? Writing Requirements for Final Submission (All Parts): 2 pages minimum All parts should be in one Word document Minimum of 3 credible references required (APA Reference page needed, in-text citations where appropriate) double spaced, Times New Roman font, font size 12 pts. Headers required for each section (Refer to Tasks) Please refer to the rubric for more details on how this assignment is graded and how points are allocated. Books used in class for reference are Title: Applied Law and Ethics in Healthcare Author: Wendy Mia Pardew, ESQ Title: Health Information Management: Concepts, Principles, and Practice (7th edition) Author: Pamela K. Oachs, MA, RHIA, CHDA, FAHIMA & Lisa M. Delhomme, MHA, RHIA