How to Develop an Effective Healthcare Compliance Program

2. Establish program oversight

As one of the core elements dictated by the OIG, your facility’s leadership needs to authorize a person or group with the authority to run the compliance program. That means they need to be able to write and implement policies, enforce standards, track and report on compliance, and handling compliance-related tasks from a top-down perspective.

In fact, regardless of whether or not the OIG requires a Corporate Compliance Officer (CCO) or committee, designating a person or group to manage your efforts is really the key to a well-run compliance program.

You want someone at the helm who can champion corporate integrity, accountability, and ethics, as suggested in the second key element in the above list.

When your facility invests in a designated CCO position or compliance committee, it establishes the importance of the role within your organizations. Plus, it sets the tone that they will protect the organization, hold employees accountable, and lead a culture of compliance.

3. Communicate frequently with your staff

The success of your compliance program largely depends on your effectiveness in communicating not only what employees need to do, but also why this matters to them, and where they can find the information they need.

As you kickoff (or revamp) your compliance program, all employees need to understand the importance and benefits of your compliance program, especially in terms of what your facility expects from them.

If not, they might view it as “just another set of rules to follow,” making it harder to get them on board with your efforts. To accomplish this, you need to provide clear, consistent, open communication on an on-going basis, as suggested in the fourth key element above.

And don’t make the mistake of thinking communication is a one-and-done approach – something you do only at the beginning of implementing your compliance program. Because your policies are “living documents” that will get changed and updated as needs, risks, and circumstances change, you will need to continue communicating these changes to employees in the future.

Again, using a policy management software like PowerDMS gives your staff quick-and-easy access to the most up-to-date versions of your facilities critical documents.

4. Conduct ongoing compliance training

When it comes to healthcare compliance training, think of it as taking communication a step further. The compliance training reinforces the policies and gives employees the ability to apply the information to their daily jobs, as suggested in the third key element above.

Updating your policies to reflect current needs and risks is a good first step in an effective compliance program. However, these updates will not carry much weight if employees are not aware of the policy changes or do not understand how they apply to the daily work they do.

Training to your policies helps educate employees on your facility’s expectations. Speak about specific policy elements and sections that affect how employees do their jobs.

Provide scenarios and on-the-job applications so employees can make the connection to how these changes apply to real-world situations they might encounter.

One way to save time and money when training employees? Use e-learning instead of relying on in-person workshops and seminars. An online training management software makes this an affordable education solution.

5. Monitor and review your program

A solid healthcare compliance program should not only be responsible for monitoring how well employees are complying with the policies and procedures, as suggested in the third key element above. It should also be charged with regularly reviewing and updating policies.

Establishing these processes from the outset ensures the compliance program stays relevant and does the most good down the road. Think of the monitor-and-review step as future-proofing your facility.

In fact, according to Risk Management Magazine, this review process should be done annually, at a minimum, with organizations looking to these documents as “living, breathing management tools.”

6. Accountability

As the last step, your healthcare compliance program needs to include a set of clear, enforceable disciplinary standards and policies. Otherwise, if employees fail to comply and nothing happens, your compliance program is worthless.

Tapping into the power of a policy management software like PowerDMS helps a great deal with accountability. You can document the employees’ acknowledgment and training related to your compliance program. That way, if they are non-compliant, you have the proof that they have been given all the resources and training to do what is expected, and they have been given the opportunity to correct their actions.

In addition to electronically tracking this for each employee, PowerDMS also lets you track (at a company-wide level) all of the policies, signatures, and training each employee has completed for a full view of your compliance documents.

Building an effective healthcare compliance program can pose a formidable challenge, for sure. But as you can see, it is not only necessary, it is absolutely doable. Fortunately, you now have a roadmap to jumpstart your efforts.

By integrating the seven fundamental elements outlined by the OIG – and following the steps above – you can build an effective healthcare compliance program at your facility.