There are several regulatory and compliance guidelines that the health system, hospitals, physicians, and other healthcare industry players need to focus on.
Inadequate training, failing to conduct risk evaluations, and ignoring security threats are some of the HIPAA violations that good healthcare compliance software can address.
Here are some of the elements to keep in mind for running an effective program.
1. Education and Training
It is crucial that you have a specific program with step-by-step documentation.You’ll also want your staff aware of those steps and how to run your healthcare compliance software effectively.
Train them frequently.
Ensure your staff stays current on all healthcare compliance trends by availing access to the latest, relevant publications, attending conferences, or networking.
Determine who will train your employees. Choose where they'll learn.Then avail the training materials they need to help you become consistently compliant.
Then set policies and procedures to ensure your people apply the training daily.
2. Have A Designated Corporate Compliance Officer and Committees
Assign a person who will be in charge of the compliance program. This person will be accountable for your healthcare compliance solutions.
You can also decide to assign compliance leadership roles to a few more people, making a compliance committee. That way, you will have a dedicated team that will detect, prevent, and correct all non-compliance issues before becoming problems for your organization.
This team will agree when and how often to meet. It can also ensure your healthcare compliance software works as it should, supporting your compliance program.
3. Implementing Standards of Conduct, Procedures, and Policies
Write down all procedures, policies, and standards of conduct in a simple and easy to understand manner.
Try to make sure that they are as relevant as possible, up to date, and specific to their functions.
Remember to update them regularly. That way, no new regulations can catch your facility by surprise.
4. Effective Communication
Proper, swift, and clear communication is vital to any healthcare compliance effort.
An open line of communication will make it easy for the employees to report cases of non-compliance.
The compliance officer should be approachable and accessible. Encourage feedback and, if possible, provide a discreet or anonymous way of reporting to avoid repercussions.
5. Lay Out Any Disciplinary Actions with Clarity
Have some well-published disciplinary guidelines to help ensure that all standards are followed and are consistent.
Compliance measures should be adhered to by everyone in the company irrespective of their title or rank.
Get and outline a plan of how you will enforce the program, and the actions that you will take should an employee fail to comply.
Never assume that your employees are adhering to the standards.
6. Monitoring and Auditing
Every compliance program should be checked and audited to know its effectiveness and relevance.
That way, you will get to know the risk areas, and you can evaluate the program to address all areas of concern.
7. Corrective Action Plans
An effective compliance program includes how to train and administer the procedures and policies and how to identify and address the violation.
Your corrective action plan should show how to identify, confirm, and deal with violations. The main goal here is to address the issue raised and look for preventing it from happening again.
With these seven elements, you can be on your way to setting up a good healthcare compliance program.
Andthat can lay and a good foundation for implementing the best healthcare compliance software for your facility.