Hospital risk management and related functions: As a sample of Istanbul Memorial Hospital

The services, which are offered in hospitals, includes high amount of risk factors, due to the fact that they are closely related to the human life. These risks can influence patients, personnels and other people who are related to the hospital itself. Furthermore, they can lead to the loss of economic resources. During the 1970s, the operations of health care providers hava come to embrace many different concepts and functions that were previously unrecognized. In these years "malpractice crisis" period has emerged because of medical malpractice incidents and thousands of dollars of fees paid by the medical sector due to these incidens. Many insurance companies have elevated their insurance premiums to higher levels. Several precautions have been taken in medical insurance due to the increasing violence and frequency in medical malpractice claims. Risk management program which has been used in profit oriented companies since 1940's was adopted and implemented in the medicla sector. Lates on, many scientists have demonstrated the relations between quality assurance and risk management in hospitals. The purpose of the study is to clarify the structure of risk management in commonly used American hospitals and to show the relationship about the JCAHO approach and utilization management program which is used in quality management.This study has three sections: the first sections of the includes the problem, importance, hypothesis, limitations, descriptons, and the methodology. Second section is compased of findings and the analysis of these findings in the basis of JCI Accreditation standarts, which are provided by the Istanbul Memorial Hospital where there is a risk management program. Third section includes the results and recommendations from the findings.