Customer Value Story:
Integrating Risk Management and Incident Management

ERM Incident Management

In this case study, research firm GRC 20/20 describes how Winona Health, a LogicManager customer in the healthcare industry, used the software to integrate its enterprise risk management (ERM) and incident management programs in 45 days – winning the 2016 GRC Value Award in Risk Management.

As a large, nonprofit healthcare provider, Winona Health manages more than 3,000 incidents annually and has more than 1,000 employees that need to report or manage these incidents. This customer needed to find a user-friendly risk-based solution that could be implemented quickly, without professional service fees.

If end users found the system difficult to use, the number of incidents reported could decline, which would undermine the efforts of their risk and compliance teams. If the system wasn’t fully up and running within 6 weeks, the time between signing with LogicManager and the end of their contract with a previous incident management solution, then employees would not be able to report incidents, creating huge regulatory and liability concerns.

With LogicManager’s risk-based foundation, Winona Health is better able to identify the root causes of incidents, reduce the number of cases reported, and shorten incident processing time. “Winona Health’s goals demonstrate their program’s maturity and we commend them on their success,” said Steven Minsky, Chief Executive Officer of LogicManager. “By adopting a holistic approach to risk management, Winona Health is better positioned to mitigate risks before they turn into real threats. This will give them the ability to make informed, confident business decisions.”

Winona Health: Case Study

Company Profile

Winona Health is an independent, community-owned healthcare provider focused on providing high-quality, low-cost healthcare to its community. By leveraging technology, including the use of integrated electronic medical records, this customer has been named repeatedly to Health Network’s list of “Most Wired” hospitals.

Company Size
1,000-5,000 employees

Type
Nonprofit

Industry
Hospitals & Healthcare

Accreditations and Awards:

  • GRC Value Award in Risk Management: Winona Health and LogicManager received this award from GRC 20/20.
  • LogicManager enabled Winona Health to achieve value with a risk-based approach.
  • HIMSS Stage 7: Winona Health Clinics rank among the top 7% of healthcare systems using IT.
  • HIMSS Stage 6: Winona Health’s Hospital is one of only 25% of hospitals meeting the requirements for Stage 6 recognition.
  • PEN (Performance Excellence Network) Award: Winona Health received this award based on the Malcolm Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence.

Business Challenge

Like many other healthcare organizations, Winona Health is required by law to collect a large variety of incidents related to patient and visitor safety, each with its own unique workflows and required fields, from any employee across all areas of the hospital.

Managing over 3,000 incidents in any calendar year was logistically challenging and integrating their current method of incident collection with a board-mandated enterprise risk management program was not feasible given the limitations of their previous incident management software.

The business recognized that separating its incident management program from ERM would significantly dampen the value its program could provide. Incidents were manifestations of risk, and if the business could not track their risk mitigation activities back to their effort on hospital incidents, how would they know which controls were most effective, and where to provide additional resources?

This implementation presented logistical challenges as well. The client had just 45 days between signing their agreement with LogicManager and the end of their contract with the previous incident management solution. Any downtime in employees being able to report patient safety incidents would cause huge regulatory and liability concerns, leaving the risk management group in the dark and unable to follow up on and resolve critical events. Additionally, with over 1,000 employees, all of whom needed to be capable of reporting or managing incidents, any change in systems would require the buy in of business users. If end users found the new software challenging, the number of incidents reported could decline, undermining the efforts of the risk and compliance teams. It was critical to the organization that the new system be configured, and that users were trained appropriately within that 6-week period.

“Enterprise risk management was a strategic direction for Winona Health and they were visionary in seeing that incident management needed to be an integrated and foundational part of risk management. – “Winona Health Value Achieved in Risk Management”, GRC 20/20

LogicManager’s Impact

Within that 45-day period, LogicManager’s Advisory Analysts worked with Winona Health to streamline its incident reporting processes and procedures, ensuring that all critical information would be collected in an efficient manner. During weekly one-hour sessions, the organization’s administrators were trained on how to manage changes to the process and configuration portal. Despite the strict time frame that required the system to support dozens of incident types, the customer paid no professional service fees and went live with a production environment on schedule, with zero downtime.

Nurses, doctors, security personnel, and other users were trained during live virtual sessions with over 60 individuals. Training was supplemented by video tutorials and personalized user guides made by LogicManager at no additional cost to the customer.

The healthcare organization was able to tie incidents back to the key drivers of risk and identify trends and opportunities to reduce both the frequency and impact of patient and visitor safety incidents.

Figure 1: Example of LogicManager’s Incident Report (Not Customer Data)
Figure 1: Example of LogicManager’s Incident Report (Not Customer Data)

Post Case Update

Following the completion of the incident management implementation, the healthcare provider saw an immediate increase in the number of incidents reported through the LogicManager system, indicating that many users were actually more comfortable on LogicManager.

At that point, the administrators turned their attention to growing an enterprise risk management program. The organization built out a comprehensive ERM framework using an integrated approach by tying LogicManager’s root-case risk library into the 8 Domains of Healthcare for ERM that were published by the American Society for Healthcare Risk Management. By identifying key root-cause risks related to major risk categories, the organization is able to decentralize risk assessments to different functions, both administrative and clinical, based on the risks each area is responsible for managing.

Winona Health used LogicManager to integrate their enterprise risk management (ERM) and incident management programs in just 45 days, and won GRC 20/20’s GRC Value Award in Risk Management. With LogicManager’s risk-based foundation, Winona Health can better identify the root causes of incidents, reduce the number of cases reported, and shorten incident processing time.

By conducting risk assessments with relevant personnel on the front lines, the organization is able to prioritize risk mitigation efforts based on that feedback accurately. In addition, tying incidents to their root causes allows ERM to get an accurate view of the performance of mitigation strategies over time, as they
relate to key risks. Risk management continues to grow this integrated approach to incident management and ERM, focusing on incidents with both high impact and frequency in an effort to reduce the organization’s overall exposure to risk.

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