PSQH Quick Poll 2025: Taking the Pulse of Healthcare Risk Management
By Jay Kumar
As part of Health Care Risk Management Week, PSQH reached out to our readers with a few questions about how healthcare organizations are dealing with managing risks.
The Quick Poll had a total of 47 respondents. Thanks to our sponsors Inovalon, Origami Risk, and SAI360.
Biggest risks facing healthcare organizations
Asked about the leading risks facing their organizations, 74% of respondents said their biggest risk was workforce retention, up 2% from a year ago. Other top concerns were caregiver burnout (52%), regulatory compliance (45%), medical errors (43%), cybersecurity and ransomware attacks (38%), and workplace violence (38%). Other concerns listed included: Medicaid cuts and working together.
Frequency of risk assessments
Asked how often their organization conducts a risk assessment, 45% said annually, 21% said only when needed, and 19% said twice a year. Others wrote in: We conduct risk assessment any time, when new department is started, before accreditation, after any medication error, especially in emergency or ICU; unsure.
Risk management technology
When asked what types of technology they use to monitor risks, 71% of respondents said data analytics and 61% said spreadsheets. Another 46% said risk management and 17% said artificial intelligence (AI). Write-in responses included: Phishing tests, incident reporting system.
Concern over organizational risk management
When asked about the level of concern regarding their organization’s ability to assess and manage risks, 48% of respondents said they were somewhat concerned, 29% were very concerned, and 24% were not concerned.
Cybersecurity
Asked if their organization has had to deal with a cyberattack or ransomware attack, 64% said they haven’t experienced an attack yet, while 36% said they have.
Asked to rank their organization’s preparedness for a cyber or ransomware attack, 57% said they were somewhat prepared, 31% said they were very prepared, and 12% said they were not prepared.
Who responded
The job titles of the survey respondents were varied: Nurses (27%), VP/Director/Officer, Quality (17%), risk managers (10%), physicians (7%), VP/Director/Officer, Patient Safety (7%), Chief Nursing Officer (5%), and C-suite level (CEO, COO, hospital administrator) (2%). Write-in titles include nursing supervisor, infection prevention manager, infection control professional, enterprise SVP & Chief Clinical Officer, patient safety specialist, quality manager, system quality manager. The majority (64%) of respondents work in a hospital, followed by ambulatory/physician organization (10%), post-acute/home health (7%), and ancillary health facility (2%). Write-in places of employment include ambulatory surgery center, private LTC and community care, consultant/educator, nationwide ambulatory company, SNF, PV industry, insurance company.
