Many risk managers inside hospitals view hospital peer reviews as an effective way to resolve sentinel events on a timely basis and reduce the potential for expensive lawsuits or sanctions. Risk managers view independent review organizations (IROs) as a part of the hospital peer review process. They use IROs as a tool that to improve their decision making regarding sentinel events and the adjudication of potential problems. Hospital peer review, when outsourced to an independent review organization, provides risk managers and quality assurance managers with the ability to quickly understand the facts surrounding a sentinel event or a series of events and allows the risk manager to get an objective review of a physician