Acute Care

Hospitals, clinics, and other acute care facilities are on the front lines in managing health risks and many daily challenges. Marsh’s dedicated HealthCare Practice helps these organisations mitigate their exposures so they can remain focused on their critical mission.

When illness or injury suddenly disrupts lives, acute care is where response and recovery begin. Hospitals, urgent care clinics, and other provider organisations are critical to maintaining public health, yet they face numerous risks themselves.

Acute care organisations face multiple ongoing exposures, from professional and management liability, to cyber and emerging technology risks, to property damage, to changing workforce dynamics. All of these are being managed against a backdrop of budgetary pressures, regulatory compliance demands, and stakeholder scrutiny.

And while the healthcare industry's very mission is to care for the ill, the global pandemic tested acute care as never before, putting extreme stress on physicians, nurses, and support staff. Shortages of protective medical equipment and restrictions that disrupted manufacturing and transportation strained healthcare supply chains to the breaking point.

The evolution of care and the dynamic nature of the industry mean that your risk profile is ever-changing. Our team of experienced healthcare risk management specialists can help acute care organisations navigate present challenges and prepare for new risks as they emerge.

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FAQ's

Acute care is a varied segment of the healthcare industry and includes:

Hospitals, including general, psychiatric, specialised, and rehabilitation hospitals.
Ambulatory care facilities, such as walk-in and urgent care clinics.

The goal of acute care is to provide medical treatment that assists patients in recuperation, rehabilitation, and management of symptoms. The diverse nature of injuries and illnesses with sudden onset and that can lead to severe conditions requires a similarly broad set of acute care services and care settings as well as risk management strategies.

Risks in acute care settings vary, but the most significant typically include liability for patient safety, property damage, workers’ compensation/employers liability, regulatory compliance, and data privacy. Acute care providers across many specialties face exposure to lawsuits alleging medical malpractice. In addition, damage to sophisticated diagnostic systems and equipment can disrupt the delivery of acute care services. Healthcare is also a people-intensive business, with caregivers being at risk of personal injury, making workers’ compensation a major exposure.

The growing use of electronic medical records and stringent regulations regarding protected health information mean that cyber incidents and data privacy breaches pose serious risks for all healthcare organizations.

Underpinning these risks is an ongoing transformation in the healthcare reimbursement system to value-based care from the traditional fee-for-service model. This transformation is shifting financial risk for patient outcomes to healthcare providers, a process that is likely to introduce additional exposures as organizations adapt to the new payment environment.

Every acute care organisation differs in its risk management needs and the way it approaches risk transfer, but some common forms of insurance that help mitigate risks in healthcare settings include:

Cyber liability
Directors and officers liability (D&O)
Employment practices liability
General liability
Healthcare professional liability
Property
Workers’ compensation

Marsh’s risk specialists are committed to helping acute care organisations manage their total cost of risk, with data-driven insights using powerful analytics, to continue to meet the healthcare needs of the communities they serve.

Acute Care