Running TPRM Alone: Getting Vendor Assessments Done Without a Team Behind You

Third-party risk management literature assumes a team: an analyst to chase documents, a senior reviewer to make judgment calls, a manager to hold the line with the business. The operational reality at most mid-size organizations — and almost all regional health systems — is one person, or one person plus a fraction of a colleague who covers when they're out. New vendor requests arrive weekly; annual reassessments for PHI-handling vendors stack on top; and every review has the same person doing intake, evidence collection, analysis, negotiation, and sign-off.

Running TPRM alone is not a failure state to apologize for. But it does require a different operating model than the team-based one the frameworks assume. This paper is that model: five disciplines that let one person run a credible, defensible vendor assessment program.