We don't have Risk Manager at the facility level, & none of the facilities where I have worked have.

There has always been a Risk Manager at the corporate or regional level to call & ask questions of, but in general most of the things fell back on the Administrator & the DON.

In my area, most of the facilities have the DON or the Administartor file the necessary reports with the state.

Incident reports & investigations can be done by any member of staff that has the knowledge & education & license (if required) to conduct the enquiry & adequately establish proper resolutions.

Myself, since I'm the one state is going to quiz in the event they do an on-site investigation, I wasnt to know everything! I want to have been the one asking the questions & doing the investigation & filing the report with all of the Is dotted & Ts crossed.

If your company does require a Risk Manager to do this type of thing, then I would be working directly with them in every matter involving Resident Care.

If your company doesn't actually require the position be filled, then perhaps you could get by without or add a 2nd ADON (or part-time ADON) to help share the responsibilities.

I would consider it to be a position that required a licensed clinician, probly RN but I know of many of LPNs that know more then do RNs.
They would have be well versed on the regulations (both state specific & federal) & a strong people person, not to mention very "politically tactful".

Liz:
Thanks for the reply. I totally agree about the "one being quizzed' when state comes. I definatly want to know everything about everything. As you read on a previous post, I was burnt with our last RM who is not a nurse and fouled up a very detrimental adverse resuting in a resident who died. See thread on adverse for details, if you missed it... anyways, she is no longer and I will have the RM be myself, administrator and one more nurse in house to help investigate. I can file the papers as needed. Thanks for your input.

Monica;
I think you'll find your resolution will work quite effectively.
Too many fingers involved frequently causes a lot of unnecessary confusion & can have some very negative results as you have discovered.

I recall you prior 2 posts. Thank you for sharing your experiences, thought, & questions.
Sometimes as we gain experience we forget to be open-minded & forget to analyze our current thought processes. Your posts have caused me to reexamine how I would have handles similar situations & to reflect on my own personal beliefs - - & even make a few changes in how I would likely respond as well as a few changes in our facility policy.

Thanks again for being so willing to share with us!