Essentials of clinical risk management.

The principles of industrial and commercial risk management (see Dickson, p 751) can be applied to the clinical arena: * Identification * Analysis * Control * Funding. Funding is at present largely outside the control of individual provider units, though the creation of a central fund (see below) may go some way towards providing the opportunity for prudent financial management. However, identification and analysis of risks and the steps taken to reduce and control risks are at the heart of clinical risk management.