Communicating Compliance Terms in Plain English…

communicate compliance terms in plain english

If you have ever been new to a particular field of the workforce, such as healthcare compliance, you know all too well that the language used by coworkers can sound foreign, like gibberish, or “alphabet soup.”  As we continue to work in the field though, we too, start speaking the language.  However, while that may be ok for conversing in the compliance department, it still be confusing if we are trying to communicate with, or to educate, other functional areas of the healthcare organization.  Without knowing the terminology, the message we are trying to convey is unlikely to be understood when received.

Alphabet Soup

Take a look at an example of terminology just starting with the letter “A” from the Office of the Inspector General Work Plan (reference below):

  • ADAP AIDS Drug Assistance Program (note this one includes an abbreviation in the definition);
  • AI/AN American Indians and Alaska Natives (I, for one, was unfamiliar with this abbreviation);
  • AIDS acquired immunodeficiency syndrome;
  • ALF assisted living facility;
  • ALJ administrative law judge;
  • AMD age‐related macular degeneration (while I have heard of macular degeneration, I did not know this was a standard abbreviation);
  • AMP average manufacturer price;
  • ASC ambulatory surgical center;
  • ASP average sales price; and
  • AWP average wholesale price.

Say I am talking to another seasoned compliance professional in front of a new employee.  Using the above “A” acronyms only, the conversation may sound something like this,

“Based on the billing audit, I see we are not receiving contracted AWP reimbursement under our AI/AN contract for ALF patients with AMD.”

As you can imagine, a new employee might be confused by the acronyms and terms communicated instead of using common business English.  Sometimes just saying the entire word instead of the abbreviation is a good place to start, so instead of saying AWP say average wholesale price.

Repetitive Communication

In order to improve communication between seasoned compliance professionals and other members of the organization, it is important to use repetitive teaching strategies.  In addition to saying the entire compliance term and the abbreviation, be repetitive and write out the compliance term in addition to the abbreviation in written communications.  That way staff become more familiar with compliance terminology and it becomes a part of their daily vocabulary.

Knowledge in Practice

When it comes to any industry, including healthcare, it is easy to throw around acronyms and jargon that is familiar and efficient.  However, it is important to be aware of who you are talking to, and therefore make sure they clearly understand whatever it is you are communicating.  Translate and reword industry terminology in emails, policies and teaching materials where necessary in order to improve communication and understanding.  Better compliance will ultimately be the result.

PRACTICE TIP:

  1. Regularly evaluate training and orientation materials to ensure industry specific terminology is defined and understandable.
  2. Utilize the youCompli system as a centralized hub for new and existing compliance processes and utilize the included model procedures throughout the various areas of your organization.

RESOURCES:

Health Care Compliance Association (HCCA) Compliance Dictionary found at https://www.hcca-info.org/publications/compliance-dictionary

Health and Human Services (HHS), Office of the Inspector General  (OIG), Work Plan Appendix B: Acronyms and Abbreviations found at   https://oig.hhs.gov/publications/workplan/2011/wp09-appx_b_acronyms.pdf

Denise Atwood, RN, JD, CPHRM

District Medical Group (DMG), Inc., Chief Risk Officer and Denise Atwood, PLLC

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article or blog are the author’s and do not represent the opinions of DMG.

Denise Atwood, RN, JD, CPHRM has over 30 years of healthcare experience in compliance, risk management, quality, and clinical areas. She is also a published author and educator on risk, compliance, medical-legal and ethics issues. She is currently the Chief Risk Officer and Associate General Counsel at a nonprofit, multispecialty provider group in Phoenix, Arizona and Vice President of the company’s self-insurance captive.  

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Collaboration Between Compliance and Risk: What is Permissible?

Compliance departments, generally speaking, guide staff and boards of directors to comply with the requirements, laws and regulations that govern the organization’s business. They also monitor for compliance via internal audits.  Risk departments, on the other hand, address ways to mitigate risk to an organization through such activities as the evaluation and purchase of insurance policies.  Given the broad nature of the scope of these two departments within the organization, when is compliance and risk collaboration permissible?

Possible collaborations

  1. Strategic planning: Collaboration here should include not only compliance and risk but the entire organization and the board of directors, if applicable.
  2. Disaster response and business continuity: As with strategic planning, disaster response and business continuity planning should also involve input and collaboration from all departments in the organization.
  3. General security and privacy : Here the compliance/privacy officer, information technology/security officer, and risk management director should all be included in the planning.
  4. Known security threat and/or breach incident: Compliance, information technology (IT), and risk management would all participate in mitigating a security threat or breach incident on the organization. Each would provide input and guidance on their respective areas of knowledge.
  5. Risk assessments, gap analysis and mitigation plans: Again, the development of these plans should include leaders from the entire organization; moreover, compliance and risk would specifically collaborate on the assessment, analysis and mitigation activities.
  6. General policy development: Compliance and risk staff can collaborate and provide feedback and input for all organization policies.
  7. Record and document retention schedule: Here compliance and risk can collaborate with legal counsel to ensure record and document retention policies comply with state and federal laws.
  8. Staff education: This is an area where compliance and risk can collaborate to provide training, whether it is done in person, virtually, by email or via online course.

Collaborations to vet and evaluate permissibility

  1. Security breach: As noted above, compliance, IT, and risk will work together once a security breach has been identified. It is important to ensure compliance addresses HIPAA related information and potential reporting requirements; IT evaluates the technical aspects of the breach; and risk focuses on reporting to the insurance carrier and mitigation strategies in conjunction with compliance and IT. These collaborative activities will usually take place under a breach coach or law firm to protect the confidential nature of the breach.
  2. Shared work areas: Depending on the confidential nature of discussions, say a lawsuit against the organization, it may or may not be appropriate for compliance staff to be privy to such information. So shared work areas should be closely evaluated.
  3. Shared staff: As with shared work areas, if a staff member such as a registered nurse (RN) is shared between the compliance and risk department, both leaders and the RN must remain in the scope of the job role in which they are working at the time.
  4. Reporting to the board: Typically, compliance reports to the organization’s leader (such as a CEO) but also has direct or dotted line reporting to the board of directors. Make sure any collaborations with other departments do not create potential conflicts of interest with reporting up this chain of command.
  5. Committee membership: As with the analysis discussed above, make sure to vet compliance staff member membership on the risk committee and vice versa to avoid any actual or potential conflicts of interest.

Goal

All organizations should work to develop a culture where permissible collaborations between compliance and risk occur. They should also make certain that staff feel comfortable calling the compliance or risk department with potential concerns while ensuring the staff not crossing any lines when it comes to compliance or risk department confidential matters or conflicts of interest.

PRACTICE TIP:

  1. Evaluate opportunities for the compliance department to collaborate with the risk management team, as noted above.
  2. Access youCompli to find resources which address required document and record retention requirements.

Denise Atwood, RN, JD, CPHRM

District Medical Group (DMG), Inc., Chief Risk Officer and Denise Atwood, PLLC

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article or blog are the author’s and do not represent the opinions of DMG.

Denise Atwood, RN, JD, CPHRM has over 30 years of healthcare experience in compliance, risk management, quality, and clinical areas. She is also a published author and educator on risk, compliance, medical-legal and ethics issues. She is currently the Chief Risk Officer and Associate General Counsel at a nonprofit, multispecialty provider group in Phoenix, Arizona and Vice President of the company’s self-insurance captive.  

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CAN MORAL REBELS ASSIST WITH ORGANIZATION COMPLIANCE?

I recently heard the term “moral rebel” while listening to an SCCE Compliance Perspectives podcast.  This piqued my curiosity because I wanted to know if a moral rebel was perceived as a positive.  In the podcast, Amherst College Professor Catherine Sanderson explained that a moral rebel feels comfortable standing up to a crowd and will call out bad behavior. Similarly, Scott A McGreal in Psychology Today wrote moral rebels have a strong sense of moral identity and are more likely to act morally under pressure.  Politics aside, I think we could use more moral rebels right now, especially in our compliance departments.  So, how can moral rebels assist our organizations with compliance? Let’s look at a hypothetical case scenario to find out…

Case Scenario – Chaperone policy

Your organization has chaperone policy which requires a chaperone to accompany the provider and patient for any sensitive examinations involving the genitalia, rectum, groin, buttocks or breasts.  The policy states the chaperone may be a nurse or medical assistant.

From a compliance and risk perspective, the policy has been implemented to protect the patient, the provider and the organization from potential allegations of inappropriate touching.  Education should be done with the providers to ensure the policy is followed regardless of patient and provider gender.  The policy is written this way because the anatomical gender may not reflect the gender a patient ascribes to, relates to, or identifies as.

If a sensitive examination needs to be performed, a chaperone must be present during the examination and their name should be documented in the visit note. If, however, after being educated about the need for a chaperone during the sensitive examination the patient declines a chaperone, this should be witnessed by the provider and another staff member and documented in the visit note by the provider including the name of the staff member who witness chaperon declination.

Potential non-compliance with the chaperone policy

Jesse is a medical assistant who works in a pediatric and adolescent clinic.  Jesse observes a provider who identifies as male take a patient who identifies as female into an examination room alone.  Since Jesse prepped the patient’s chart the night before, Jesse knows the patient is here for abdominal cramps and irregular menstrual bleeding.  Moreover, Jesse prepared the exam room to ensure the provider had a speculum and gel available for a vaginal exam.  During the patient’s visit, Jesse is never called into the room.  While accompanying another patient to the lab for a blood draw, Jesse sees the female patient checking out at the front desk. Jesse wonders who chaperoned the patient’s visit because the only other medical assistant is on lunch break.

Ability to stand up / come forward

In the case scenario above, Jesse would be deemed a moral rebel by speaking up and confirming whether the chaperone policy was followed by the provider.  If uncomfortable discussing with the provider directly, Jesse may report concerns to the nurse manager for follow up. In an organization where moral rebels are valued the nurse manager would support a culture where moral rebels are not afraid to come forward if organization policies are not being followed or there was potential harm to a patient or another staff member.  Moreover, the nurse manager and compliance would ensure there was no retaliation against Jesse.

PRACTICE TIP:

  1. Educate staff on policies, such as the chaperone policy, and then monitor compliance with that policy.
  2. Foster an environment for moral rebels – individuals who are driven by morals to do the right thing – to bring potential issues to the attention of leadership or compliance without fear of retaliation.
  3. Utilize youCompli to ensure you are up to date on laws, regulations, and reporting related to required compliance policies, such as a chaperone policy.

Denise Atwood, RN, JD, CPHRM
District Medical Group (DMG), Inc., Chief Risk Officer and owner of Denise Atwood, PLLC
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article or blog are the author’s and do not represent the opinions of DMG.

Denise Atwood, RN, JD, CPHRM has over 30 years of healthcare experience in compliance, risk management, quality, and clinical areas. She is also a published author and educator on risk, compliance, medical-legal and ethics issues. She is currently the Chief Risk Officer and Associate General Counsel at a nonprofit, multispecialty provider group in Phoenix, Arizona and Vice President of the company’s self-insurance captive.  

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Weaknesses in Internal Controls: How to Manage and Mitigate Vulnerabilities

weaknesses internal controls

Revised September 2022

Risk in US Healthcare

It is incredibly difficult to turn off “work brain” after the day is done.  Thoughts and questions keep creeping in during off work time, personal time.   

For example, did I send the new state law privacy requirements to our IT security team to review? Are the staff following and appropriately documenting for telehealth reimbursement?  Or what should be my priorities on Monday morning? These questions all represent potential weaknesses in internal controls.  Let’s explore what can be done to mitigate or decrease any vulnerabilities. 

It is important to have appropriate internal controls supported by open communication between colleagues, and forthright reporting to both compliance and risk departments in an organization. 

Since organizations are still run by humans, there remains the potential that one human sets up a call to discuss a topic (like a regulatory change), and inadvertently forgets to invite all the other humans affected by the change. Having a process in place where an employee discusses a need to meet with his or her supervisor can help ensure you’ve got the right humans at the table.  

Internal controls must also be communicated to the staff so they can adhere to the organization’s expectations and policies. This is where education, early and often, that includes the why behind the internal control, can provide the best results to reducing any vulnerabilities. 

Top Areas of Risk

Top areas of risk to a healthcare organization include weaknesses or vulnerabilities in security, documentation, operations, and staff performance.  Let’s consider the following: 

  • The risk focus for organizational security typically includes areas like information technology (IT) and physical buildings. Cybersecurity data leaks or active shooters are examples of each.  
  • Incomplete, non-existent, or fraudulent medical record documentation is another large risk for health care organizations. 
  • Lack of clear policies, procedures, or protocols (PPPs) present huge risks to the organization as employees may act in a way which is not in compliance with PPPs. 
  • And finally, human error, even if unintentional, can present costly risks to the organization, such as a Stark law violation. Both the strongest and the weakest internal control for health care organizations involves the staff.  Take cybersecurity: many data leaks come from staff clicking on the wrong link or attachment and letting the “bad guys in” to the network. The same is true when an employee lets someone in the building on their badge scan rather than making them badge in themselves.  

Mitigate Risks

Risk mitigation is an organizational strategy to prevent or decrease the impact of mistakes or unanticipated outcomes when they occur.  One strategy is to implement organizational controls, such as PPPs along with checklists and tools, to either prevent or decrease organizational risks. 

  • A primary and effective way to mitigate risks to the organization is to empower the employees with knowledge. Don’t just have employees complete compliance and risk education online.  Go out and meet the staff and answer their questions in real time!  Or encourage them to call or email their questions and provide timely follow up. 
  • Risk and compliance departments should foster a culture of early reporting by staff when there is a mistake or unanticipated outcome or a deviation from the PPPs. When a staff member makes a report, it is important to document the facts while remaining objective and non-judgmental. (Related: Read Brian Kozik’s story of changing the consequence structure to support a safe to speak up culture) 
  • Ensure you have a usable system to track internal control weaknesses to manage and mitigate vulnerabilities. Whether this is a manual process or is done through an IT application, make sure you consistently use the internal controls to evaluate and mitigate risks because they change – frequently. 
  • Review, or if you don’t have them, develop cybersecurity and business continuity plans. These plans should be living documents that are used regularly and revised at least every two years, to ensure compliance and risk topics are current and mitigated.  These plans should not just be a book on the shelf or a file on a computer. The risk focus for these plans should include tools to monitor both IT and the physical building risks. 
  • Commit to being a leader when it comes to promoting an open culture for reporting weaknesses, or breaks, in internal controls so early mitigation strategies can be implemented. 

Proactively setting internal controls helps you and your colleagues address mistakes and errors when they inevitably do happen.  While there is no failsafe way to ensure 100% compliance with internal controls, or that all employees will do the right thing every time, you’ll be better positioned when staff are educated and equipped to comply with regulations and do the right thing.  And in organizations that have an open culture of reporting, both the risk and compliance teams will be aware of the internal control weaknesses so they can implement mitigation strategies early on. 

 Strong internal controls are critical to effective regulatory change management. YouCompli can enable your collaboration with compliance champions and free your time to focus on relationships and communications. Take a look at our regulatory change management solution today.  

Jerry Shafran is the founder and CEO of YouCompli. He is a serial entrepreneur who builds on a solid foundation of information technology and network solutions. Jerry launches, manages, and sells software and content solutions that simplify complex work. His innovations enable professionals to focus on their core business priorities.

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Improving Your Reputation: How to Help Your Healthcare Organization See the Compliance Department in a Positive Light

When the compliance team visits another department, staff responses are usually the same: we must have done something wrong.

This isn’t the response that you want. The compliance department and staff should be seen as approachable, working in a collaborative fashion to make the organization more successful. If the compliance department only comes in to run audits and give “constructive” feedback, then compliance will quickly become known for negativity and criticism.

Collaboration

It is important to collaborate with other departments and incorporate a holistic organizational approach. This means valuing what other team members have to offer with regards to compliance in the organization. It can be easy for compliance professionals to make black or white statements regarding compliance with a specific regulation or policy. After all, it’s there in writing — in black and white.

But, other teams can sometimes bring to light another perspective. There may be gray areas in the written requirements or overall process and addressing these could benefit the organization without compromising compliance.

Or, compliance professionals could demonstrate openness to evaluating how requirements and regulations are impacting specific operational workflows. For example, when evaluating a compliance process for telehealth visits related to obtaining consent, the operations leader should be given an opportunity to work with compliance in developing the process.

In-Person Education

One approach to improving collaboration with other departments is to conduct in-person education and question and answer (Q&A) sessions. Ask all department leaders if you can have ten (but no more than fifteen) minutes at their next staff meeting to introduce the compliance team and to solicit compliance-related topics and questions. Before the meeting, make sure to get the department leader to provide two to three compliance-related topics that would be of interest to their team. Prepare a short slide presentation to use in the meeting — typically, one slide per topic and one Q&A slide at the end.

During the meeting, make sure to leave at least five minutes for compliance Q&A. Listen to the staff questions and solicit information on challenges or knowledge gaps related to compliance, so follow up can be done with the that department or team.

Follow-Up Education

Follow up should be timely (within three to four weeks) and can be done a few different ways: short videos, posts on the internal intranet or website, email education, or additional in-person follow up education. There are several excellent (and free) applications available online where you can create short, two- to three-minute compliance videos that can then be distributed to staff.

Follow-up education could also be done by email if the topic and question and answer lends itself to an email response. For example, if staff ask a question about HIPAA’s application to texts or emails, it would be fairly easy to find a one-page summary on the application of HIPAA to texts and emails and attach that to an email.

Volunteers

Another way to improve collaboration would be to have compliance staff volunteer to participate in organization committees not directly related to compliance. For example, compliance professionals could join the policy committee or the activities committee. In this way, the compliance team can develop positive relationships with others in the organization, in an open and approachable way.

Practice Tip:

  1. Reach out to at least 3-4 departments before the end of the year to schedule and conduct in-person meet and greets with a focus on compliance education.
  2. Utilize services such as youCompli to stay current on compliance topics and regulations to present during your meet and greet meetings.

Denise Atwood, RN, JD, CPHRM
District Medical Group (DMG), Inc., Chief Risk Officer and owner of Denise Atwood, PLLC
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article or blog are the author’s and do not represent the opinions of DMG.

Denise Atwood, RN, JD, CPHRM has over 30 years of healthcare experience in compliance, risk management, quality, and clinical areas. She is also a published author and educator on risk, compliance, medical-legal and ethics issues. She is currently the Chief Risk Officer and Associate General Counsel at a nonprofit, multispecialty provider group in Phoenix, Arizona and Vice President of the company’s self-insurance captive.  

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How Do We Modernize Compliance?

Times change and compliance, like all businesses and business operations, needs processes that keep up. However, there are a lot of challenges that we as compliance professionals face when it comes to modernizing our practice. Modernizing compliance means adapting or incorporating requirements, adherence methods and technology to align with current times or requirements.

For example, this could mean learning to effectively audit electronic, instead of paper, health records. Many compliance professionals have also had to adapt to working with a remote workforce, such as billing and coding professionals, as formerly onsite staff have been transitioned out, in favor of a contracted workforce for a third-party company.

With these, and many other, challenges in mind, how do we proactively modernize compliance?

Enterprise Risk Management Planning

One way is to ensure compliance is part of the organization’s enterprise risk management (ERM) plan and business strategy. It is commonly, but incorrectly, believed that an ERM plan only involves the risk management department. An effective and comprehensive ERM plan has to include human capital, operational, financial and strategic domains, as well as addressing legal, regulatory and compliance related domains and issues.

For example, HIPAA or cyber breaches involving PII or PHI can have significant risk to the organization, including reputational, regulatory and financial consequences. Evaluating these compliance-related risks should be part of the ERM planning process, as should the development of strategies in the ERM to mitigate or manage these risks.

Compliance and Education Plans

Another way to modernize compliance is to ensure compliance and education plans are informative, yet easy to understand and follow. Gone are the days where the compliance plan can be over 30 pages long and written in a dense format with little white space. Let’s be honest: other than people in the compliance department, most employees won’t read a 30-page regulatory document which consists of nothing but text.

Compliance Plan

The compliance plan should be developed and laid out in an easy to read format. Graphs and other graphical elements should be included to aid in engagement and learning. And, when including the regulatory language, also include a clear, concrete example of how that applies to the employee.

For example, we all know that HIPAA requires staff to maintain patient privacy. While at work, this includes conversations — so we should not be discussing patients or patient information with co-workers in the elevator or bathroom. Similarly, if a person calls asking about a patient, staff must check the registration or admission system to ensure the patient wants their admission shared with callers or visitors.

If you really want your employees to follow the compliance plan, then craft it with that as your intent. Get two to three volunteers from other departments to review and edit the document with you so you ensure you met your goal to educate employees and modernize the compliance plan.

Education Plan

Education plans need to be developed that align with the compliance plan, but also must be informative and fresh. Employees are no longer interested in sitting down for a half-day session of watching PowerPoint presentations. Select annual mandatory compliance education modules that are engaging and can be completed in 10-15 minutes at one time. Ensure the format is varied with some reading, videos and multiple-choice options which enhance learning. Try incorporating in-person education throughout the year so that your co-workers are updated on any compliance policy updates or regulatory changes. But keep the education to around 10 minutes at a time in an easy to understand and engaging format, so employees see compliance as a resource instead of a department that only delivers bad news or wastes their time.

Data Analytics Processes

To modernize compliance, it is also important to create agile and contemporary data analytics processes. We can’t track all healthcare related regulations on paper or spreadsheets anymore. There are simply too many requirements to follow and too many changes to track.

The COVID-19 pandemic is a perfect recent example. Governors from many states were executing executive orders (EO) on a frequent basis to address COVID-19 related matters. These executive orders addressed such topics as whether elective surgery could or could not be performed, what restrictions were lifted with regards to telehealth visits, and what professional licensing requirements were relaxed. For organizations who have facilities in multiple states, tracking EO alone would be an incredible burden in a paper- or spreadsheet-driven department.

And, regardless of EO, there can be compliance issues related to telehealth visits and the ability to bill for those visits. For example, if a provider tries to deliver an annual Medicare visit via telehealth from California for a new patient in Connecticut.

Technology and Automation

It probably goes without saying, but modernizing compliance fundamentally includes incorporating the use of current technology and automation tools to assist with regulatory compliance and education. There are a number of electronic learning systems which automate compliance education assignment and monitoring. These systems allow compliance professionals to assign required annual training, as well as remedial education, by employee type (nurse, doctor, coder, food service, volunteer, therapist, information technologist, etc.).

There are also a variety of internet-based due diligence platforms to ensure potential vendors and contractors are appropriately vetted before the organization does business with them. And, there are many systems available that track regulatory changes and regulatory activity within your organization. There’s no longer a good reason to not explore the options, and see which tools are a good fit for your department and organization.

Practice Tip:

  1. Depending on the size of your organization, get 3-6 volunteers to review and provide input on your compliance plan and compliance education materials.
  2. Evaluate current technology and automation platforms such as youCompli to help meet your organization’s compliance needs.

Denise Atwood, RN, JD, CPHRM
District Medical Group (DMG), Inc., Chief Risk Officer and owner of Denise Atwood, PLLC
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article or blog are the author’s and do not represent the opinions of DMG.

Denise Atwood, RN, JD, CPHRM has over 30 years of healthcare experience in compliance, risk management, quality, and clinical areas. She is also a published author and educator on risk, compliance, medical-legal and ethics issues. She is currently the Chief Risk Officer and Associate General Counsel at a nonprofit, multispecialty provider group in Phoenix, Arizona and Vice President of the company’s self-insurance captive.  

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Worker Fatigue and the Potential Negative Impact on Compliance

When workers get fatigued, what is the impact on compliance?

We all know that, during a normal workday, workers can get fatigued. Fatigue can come from a variety of sources, including personal and professional challenges or stressors. Mental fatigue specifically occurs when there is a need to process overwhelming amounts of new data or information.

The impact and stressors of working during a pandemic can make this worse. Mental fatigue is exacerbated because there is so much new information to cull through on a daily (sometimes more frequent) basis. Combine this information overload with rapidly changing pandemic recommendations and guidelines, and it’s no wonder that workers are becoming more fatigued.

Effects of Fatigue

Memory and performance both decline when a person is mentally fatigued, which can lead to non-compliant behaviors and actions. This happens because fatigue decreases the ability to make new, short-term memories. Lack of short-term memories prevents the formation of long-term memory knowledge. And a person simply cannot recall information which has not been transferred to long-term memory. In this way, fatigue decreases the ability to recall information – whether recently learned or already known.

For example, if the organization has not previously billed for telehealth visits, a fatigued coder may not remember the education that was provided regarding telehealth documentation requirements or the codes applied to these visits. Moreover, the coder may have difficulty recalling in-person visit codes or coding modifiers. When these effects of fatigue happen, coding compliance will decrease.

Mental and physical fatigue can affect worker performance in other ways. Think about the last time you did not get a good night’s sleep. At work the next day, all you can think about is drinking more coffee or taking a nap or going to bed early that night.

Signs of this kind of fatigue include decreased awareness or a general decrease in interest with respect to work or job tasks. Other signs of fatigue include changes in judgment or decision-making. Take, for example, an employee who is usually very engaged on the job, but unexpectedly shows up late for a scheduled meeting. During the meeting, the employee is unusually quiet and provides limited feedback. If that employee’s knowledge and feedback are necessary to make a critical compliance-related decision there would be not only a negative effect on compliance, but potentially a negative effect on the entire organization.

Compliance Fatigue

There is also a form of specific compliance fatigue – where people are overwhelmed and wearied by the numerous adherence requirements in healthcare policies and procedures and rules and regulations. This combines with mental fatigue, which inhibits the ability to remember and follow these policies and procedures, which is the cornerstone of good compliance.

Employees may know and understand policies and procedures addressing HIPAA. For example, they must use encryption when emailing protected health information (PHI) or personally identifiable information (PII) or payment card information (PCI). Similarly, in the course of their work, they must exercise heightened caution before clicking on links embedded in emails. If they are experiencing fatigue, the possibility of compliance failures increases.

As physical, mental and compliance fatigue increase the potential for job related mistakes, they conversely decrease worker compliance. The overall impact of worker fatigue can have very real and negative impact on compliance ranging from simple mistakes or lapses in judgment to catastrophic errors related to breach of PHI/PII or PCI.

Practice Tips

Encourage supervisors to regularly meet with their staff to evaluate the level of information fatigue or physical fatigue. If possible, conduct education and feedback sessions to help the team talk through fatigue challenges.

Utilize resources, such as youCompli, to assist the team in staying current with healthcare compliance related changes to guidelines, regulations and laws, and managing compliance-related workflows automatically.

Denise Atwood, RN, JD, CPHRM
District Medical Group (DMG), Inc., Chief Risk Officer and owner of Denise Atwood, PLLC
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article or blog are the author’s and do not represent the opinions of DMG.

Denise Atwood, RN, JD, CPHRM has over 30 years of healthcare experience in compliance, risk management, quality, and clinical areas. She is also a published author and educator on risk, compliance, medical-legal and ethics issues. She is currently the Chief Risk Officer and Associate General Counsel at a nonprofit, multispecialty provider group in Phoenix, Arizona and Vice President of the company’s self-insurance captive.