The New Horizon for Harm Response Programs: What Every Senior Executive Should Know

Communication and resolution programs are rapidly becoming the standard of care for responding to harm events in healthcare. CRPs promote improved medico-legal outcomes after harm events, strengthen a culture of safety and accountability, and ensure the well-being of affected patients and clinicians.

In the U.S., the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Patient Safety Structural Measure will require hospitals to attest whether they have an evidence-based CRP and track its performance with standard metrics. Yet using a CRP for individual harm events can be difficult, which leads to highly inconsistent implementation and failure to realize the many benefits of these programs. The linchpin of effective CRP implementation is skilled leadership. Yet many leaders feel ill-equipped to address common CRP challenges.

In this interactive session, senior leaders will learn proven strategies for developing and implementing a comprehensive CRP that improves culture, patient safety and workforce well-being. Through exploration of challenging cases, senior leaders will gain confidence in their ability to respond to difficult CRP cases, such as events involving multiple insurers or multiple institutions, or situations with unclear causation, disengaged physicians, or potential for negative media impact and reputational harm.

Brief didactic presentations will share the current state of national CRP implementation, the perspective of an organization that has successfully implemented a CRP, and the liability insurer perspective. Discussions will illuminate the importance of a highly reliable, disciplined process and the critical balance between clinical and legal concerns. Session participants will leave with tools they can use at their organizations to improve the timeliness and effectiveness of their response to harm events.