1 RISK ASSESSMENT FOR THE HEALTH SECTOR RISK ASSESSMENT FOR THE HEALTH SECTOR Part one. Risk assessment is a procedural process that is aimed at identifying the potential hazards and analysing what could happen if the hazards occurred. The risk assessment tool for the health sector will be aimed at promoting the vigilance in identifying risks and the ways to minimise the very risks and also offers guidance to the encouragement of greater consistency in risk management in the health sector. It is important to encourage greater use risk assessment at practice level and increased awareness and understanding of these steps of assessing at various levels. The mode implied in the health sector's risk assessment works in five steps as described below: Identifying the risk Decide what might be harmed and how? Evaluate the risks identified in step one and decide on the precautions. Record your findings, proposed actions and identify the persons to lead on which action and record the date of implementation Review the assessment and update if necessary. (John et al., 2004) Step one: identifying the risks. In order to prevent any harm in the health sector, it is important to understand what can go wrong, how it can go wrong and the possible reasons why something might go wrong in the health sector. It is advisable that the activities within the context of the physical and emotional environment and the culture of the involved organization besides the staff responsible for the activity be critically considered. In another way, it can be easily achieved by taking into account the past mistakes and risks as a way of learning from the past. The information might be collected by manually waking into the clinical areas and talking to patients and health facilities' employees. This sometimes might require multi-disciplinary teams. In this case, we shall consider St. Mary's Hospital Bliss Lane. The identified risk is the spreading of contagious infections in the hospital environment to both patients and the hospital staff. This is a great risk since some of the contagious infections are likely to be fatal e.g. Ebola disease. Step two: evaluate who might be exposed to the hazards. 2 RISK ASSESSMENT FOR THE HEALTH SECTOR This is simply done by considering for instance the number of patients that might be harmed within a given period of time. This should be done while paying maximum attention to the number of the most probable victims and the complexity of the task. In the evaluation of the St. Mary's Hospital, the number of the affected victims is likely to increase over time. Other patients, nurses and doctors who share the environment or come in contact with the infected patients are vulnerable to victimization. Step three: evaluation of the risks. Done by looking at the intensity of the consequences and gauging if there is need for more action or not. It is also advisable to design the precautions that will most effectively curb the consequences or reduce the likelihood and re-evaluating the risks with an assumption that the precautions have been taken into account; this will predict its effectiveness. Depending on the previous infections, the intensity of the problem can be minor until there is an outbreak in the region. The best precaution to undertake is to impose quarantine as soon as one infection is spotted in a patient. The infected are supposed to be secluded in an area where they do not intermingle freely with others. Those attending to them should wear protective clothing to avoid contamination and infections. Step four: recording findings. Recording will allow for further reviewing and improving on the precautions. This brings transparency and proves the fact that an efficient and succinct documentation system is vital and necessary. The records are important in showing that a thorough check has been made to identify hazards and even treat the available risks significantly, the precautions are relevant and that the solutions are real, sustainable and effective in terms of functionality. Step five; reviewing the assessment and if necessary, carrying out updating process. The dynamic nature of the world leads to research and new developments. With a good documentation, it is easy to evaluate the relevance of the precautions in place and if found to be below the current status, it makes sense to upgrade to a more relevant and effective one. This should be done in a routine manner. After the assessment on the risk of spreading the contagious infections to other initially uninfected members of the hospital fraternity it is important to put the following preventive measures in place so as to curb further likelihood of the consequences of the problem: Quarantine; such that it should be restricted by law to freely interact with the infected people. This will avoid spread of the diseases to other healthy people. Vaccination; such that all unaffected people should adhere to a program requiring every member of the society to boost his or her immunity against the contagious 3 RISK ASSESSMENT FOR THE HEALTH SECTOR infection via administering of the vaccines that will lower the probability of contracting the infection. Preventive measures should be implemented by the law in such a way that each and every member would be bound by the law to adhere to the prevention programme. This can be done through hygiene checks and cleanliness in general so as to maintain god health. (Hellenbeck, 1986) Part two. SCARCE RESOURCES ALLOCATION PLAN The most vital resources that are important in community and economic development are usually limited. This is a tricky phenomenon because these are the very resources that are required to curb any unexpected risks and problem and also to be able to supplement the strategic plans that are usually laid by the management teams to spear head development and make discreet steps in terms of betterment of lives and profitability of financial institutions. Therefore there is need for critical planning as far managing these scarce resources is concerned. Some of the resources are in fact non-renewable, which makes it even more critical. Therefore, the governmental leaders are supposed to make sound decisions so as to enhance sustainability of the scarce resources and be prepared for disastrous incidences. These resources are numerous, some of which include, skilled manpower, capital in form of money, energy sources natural resources among others. They are of two types: non-renewable and renewable resources. The government management should ensure sustainability of these resources in that, for the non-renewable resources, an alternative source should be designed so as to reduce its depletion rate while for the renewable resources; the rate of depletion has to be made to be lower the rate of regeneration. (Montani, 2008) This makes it vital for the government to have an appropriate allocation model that will ensure sustainability of these scarce resources as well ensure smooth running of the societal activities that are geared towards development and optimization of economically and socially vital factors because it is important not to retard the growth of the society through nonexploitation of these scarce resources in that there will be no development if they will be stored for disastrous moments but still they can't be overused or depleted without minding the emergence scenarios. In this case the prioritization principle has to be applied and effectively implemented. 4 RISK ASSESSMENT FOR THE HEALTH SECTOR The allocation of the scarce resources involves determination of how equitably and in a manner that will quench each and every need of the society. In an economist's perfect world, resources would have been optimally allocated. It is important to consider the efficiency of production while allocating these resources, such that fewer resources should be expended so as to produce goods and services. The following have to be considered by the government while allocating resources. (Samuel, 2013) Strategic plan: the vision and strategic goals have to be met through achievement of a country's objectives. Budgeting; such that set objectives will require sufficient resources so as to be achieved smoothly and this has to be confined within the bounds of the expected expenses. Logistical management; the resources need to be moved wherever they are needed in order to accomplish the objectives of the society in question. The company or the government has to manage the flow of these scarce resources appropriately. Although it needs a lot of critical decision making and strategic planning, it is possible for the government to manage and equally allocate these scarce resources that are important in societal development. REFERENCES Hellenbeck W., (1986). Quantitative Risk Assessment for Environmental and Occupational Health. Chelsea, Mich.: Lewis Publishers. John H., Irmak T., Greg S., Claire R., and Sarp Y. (2004). Review of Risk Based Prioritization/Decision Making Methodologies for Dams.The Goerge Washington University, Washington DC 20052. Montani G.,(1987). Scarcity. In Eatwell J., Millgate M. and Newman P. The palgrave, A Dictionary of Economics 4. Palgrave, Houndsmill pp. 253-254. O'Brien M., (2002). Making Better Decisions: A Risk Assessment Alternative. Ambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, ISBN 0-262-15051-4. Retrieved 27th September 2010. Samuel S., (2013). Resource Allocation. Slideshare.net. retrieved 24th June 2006