Our History

Founded more than 40 years ago, the CRICO insurance program insures all of the Harvard medical institutions and its affiliates, providing coverage to 26 hospitals, 13,500 physicians, more than 300 other health care organizations, and in excess of 100,000 other clinicians and employees. In 1979, The Risk Management Foundation of the Harvard Medical Institutions Incorporated (RMF) was established to, among other things, implement a data-driven approach to reducing medical error through clinical analysis of malpractice claims. That analysis has been, and continues to be, shared with member institutions to inform their own patient safety initiatives.

Our Impact

The Power of Convening

Through its uniquely neutral position within the Harvard medical community, CRICO has been highly successful convening clinical leaders from its member hospitals to discuss common areas of risk; reaching consensus on solutions that will be most effective in ensuring the safest possible health care environment for patients and providers. CRICO-supported researchers, armed with intelligence from an extensive database of national MPL claims, have applied the clinically coded data to identify risk reduction solutions such as: simulation training, closed-loop communication, and checklists in surgical settings.

Driven by an interest to provide a more immediate impact on safety—mitigating the potential for repetition through real-time response to events—in 2010, the Academic Medical Center Patient Safety Organization (AMC) PSO was federally listed as a component Patient Safety Organization of RMF. Since it was established, the AMC PSO has diligently facilitated the pursuit of patient safety activities, which include the sharing of best practices through published alerts and guidelines, and convening of health care leaders in response to emerging risks. As a national convener of clinicians and health care organizations, the AMC PSO uses analysis of safety events to create learning systems and improve patient safety.

How Our Data Can Help Save Lives

National partnerships allow analytic insights to be shared across the country through the CRICO Strategies division of RMF. By partnering with captive and commercial insurers across the country, Strategies created a national Comparative Benchmarking Database (CBS) for shared learning. CBS now represents approximately one-third of all U.S. MPL claims, including those of CRICO’s Harvard affiliated members, as well as MPL data from Strategies partners across the country. This extensive database allows for individual and competitive analysis based upon a common coding taxonomy. As a result, health care leaders can identify vulnerabilities and mitigate risks through targeted patient safety initiatives. Leveraging this clinical analysis, learnings related to medical error inform patient safety initiatives, helping to transform mishap into opportunity.

Our Corporate Structure

CRICO refers to a group of companies owned by and serving the Harvard medical institutions and their affiliates.

• Controlled Risk Insurance Company of Vermont, Inc. (a Risk Retention Group) (CRICO VT) provides primary and excess insurance coverage exclusively to Harvard-affiliated medical institutions and their clinicians.
• Controlled Risk Insurance Company, Ltd. and its wholly-owned subsidiary, CRICO International, provides reinsurance to CRICO VT.
• The Risk Management Foundation of the Harvard Medical Institutions Incorporated (RMF), established in 1979, applies a data-driven approach to claims management and patient safety on behalf of CRICO’s members.
• Academic Medical Center Patient Safety Organization (AMC PSO), established as a division of RMF, is a federally-listed component Patient Safety Organization that performs patient safety activities as defined under federal law. As part of such activities, AMC PSO serves as a national convener of clinicians and health care organizations to promote patient safety by focusing on specific quality and safety initiatives. The AMC PSO represents and serves members of the Harvard-affiliated institutions, as well as other organizations across the nation.
• CRICO Strategies, a division of RMF established in 1998, is the comprehensive risk management partner to a national base of clients, providing risk assessments, data analytics and benchmarking, and risk management services designed to reduce medical error and malpractice exposure. Strategies products and services benefit hospitals and clinicians affiliated with CRICO as well as an array of organizations and insurers throughout the country.
• RMF Insurance Agency, Inc. is a fully-licensed agency and subsidiary of RMF. The agency obtains both business and personal insurance products for all members of the CRICO community. Through a business relationship with Marsh & McLennan Agency, LLC., insurance options are available to help CRICO affiliates and their employees protect their business and personal assets.