What is a risk assessment?

A risk assessment seeks to answer four simple, related questions:

1. 1. What can go wrong?
   2. How bad?
   3. How often?
   4. Is there a need for action?

It is impossible to eliminate all risks but we have a duty to protect our patients. This means we must avoid any unnecessary harm.

Definitions

Hazards

Which are situations with the potential to cause harm

Risks

The probability that a specific adverse event will occur in a specific time period

Risk is the combination of the likelihood and consequence of a hazard.

A clinical risk is the probability of an adverse outcome resulting from patient care.

For each hazard identified, it is important to decide whether it is significant and whether appropriate and sufficient controls or contingencies are in place to ensure that the risk is properly controlled.