Challenges and opportunities in the analysis of risk in healthcare

Since 1999, the estimates of annual preventable deaths in U.S. hospitals suggest that healthcare services add some risk to the patient's clinical condition. Such risks are often associated with harm resulting from errors in medication, diagnosis, and clinical procedures, among others. Preventing harm to patients demands the timely identification of risks to support the selection and implementation of effective strategies. While identifying and assessing risks in healthcare are particularly challenging due to the ambiguity and uncertainty that characterize such systems, most of the risk analysis methods currently used or proposed in healthcare have been developed for systems where unsafe conditions and risk metrics are well-defined. Therefore, their actual use in healthcare systems is inconsistent. The objective of this paper is to provide systems engineers, and researchers from related fields, with an overview of the current state of healthcare risk analysis and to highlight research contributions needed to support the proactive identification and assessment of risks in healthcare systems.