Risk Management
1. Authority and Responsibility
Major responsibilities that cannot be delegated:
- Understand departmental areas of risk and liability to the university and take appropriate action to minimize and mitigate those areas of risk/liability.
- Support decision making process that incorporates and promotes safety and accident prevention on an enterprise basis.
- Establish incident review process that recognizes both formal claims presented against the department as well as utilizes ‘near miss’ incidents as learning tools to prevent recurrence of similar incidents.
- Responsible for ensuring timely incident and claim reporting process to Risk Management.
- Support the coordination and timely participation of department representatives with Risk Management, defense counsel and Sedgwick for both the investigation and ongoing defense of claims.
Roles of Administrative Officials
- Report all losses in a timely manner.
- Immediately investigate all incidents and coordinate the handling of those incidents with the Risk Management Department.
- Set organizational expectations to promote and sustain a safety based decision making culture.
- Hold employees accountable for supporting ongoing safe operations to reduce overall university liabilities.
2. Delegations
Major responsibilities that can be delegated:
- Risk Management will provide individual claim oversight and coordination activities with the university third party administrator, Sedgwick.
- Risk Management will provide general administration and oversight of university self-insurance programs.
- Review departmental trending reports as provided by Risk Management.
- Solicit advice and best practices from Risk Management on items pertaining to:
- General safety and risk mitigation efforts when engaging in new activities.
- Accurate and timely loss reporting.
- Coordination of investigation and defense of claims and potential claims.
- Use of local resources when engaging in any activity or agreement that might put the university at risk.
- Training of employees on the concept of risk management and on programs that are covered by the self-insurance programs.
- Questions pertaining to self-insurance program coverage, procedures, and deductibles.
3. Areas of Potential Risk
The university is self-insured against losses that may occur due to general liability, property damage, automobile liability, and employment practices litigation. Failure to timely and accurately report losses can lead to denial of coverage determinations as well as the potential loss of self-insurance status. Failure to manage human resources according to University policy and procedures can lead to costly employment practice liability claims. Failure to engage in sound risk management practices can expose the University to unnecessary monetary and reputational liabilities.