Georgia Healthcare Group PLC Annual Report 2018 Strategic Report Principal risks and uncertainties continued Principal Risk/Uncertainty Key Drivers/Trends Mitigation Clinical risk continued Failures in patient, visitor or staff safety We have developed and implemented may also result in: personnel safety policy, self-injury reporting • damage to our patients and negatively system and injured personnel management impact outcome of treatment; system, which includes their treatment. • decreased patient trust in our services; • damage to our reputation which may Safety is one of our permanent priorities. result in an inability to attract new patients It implies not only human activities but also or retain existing patients; safe construction and design of medical • claims for damages; facilities. Therefore, our infection control and • occupational health hazards for our staff safety risk assessment principles are worked and resulting staffing shortages; and/or out and integrated in facility planning, design • operational limitations imposed by and construction activities. our regulators. Occupational safety was also enhanced Failure to maintain medical equipment during 2018. A framework document was could result in: created and several activities were conducted • decrease in quality of patient care and based on this document, specifically: B and C safety and decreased patient trust in hepatitis screening was performed for our our services which may result in an staff network-wide, B hepatitis vaccination inability to attract new patients or retain was started and influenza vaccination was existing patients. performed. Incident reporting system, an important aspect of occupational safety, was created in 2018. Implementation included corresponding trainings for staff skills improvement. Members of the Clinical Quality and Safety Committee and the wider Board also perform on-site visits and hold discussions with management to review practices and to discuss quality and safety with key practitioners. Finally, accounting and post-exposure management of incidents is in place and we cover all expenses related to follow-up management and treatment of injured personnel. We have an equipment maintenance and monitoring programme in place, which puts considerable emphasis on activities required for proper functioning of high-tech medical equipment. We regularly work to improve the programme and implement new and more effective approaches to medical equipment maintenance. 56