This blog explains how to make healthcare quality education programs more effective through focused efforts. It’s about quality, not quantity. Focus on the fundamentals: establish clear policies, learn from past inspections, and create education programs that meet both regulatory requirements and employee development needs.
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In this expert interview, Amy shares insight surrounding compliance management software (like YouCompli) and examples of what it takes for organizations to be successful.
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On a daily basis, compliance officers are asked to find solutions to a variety of operational requirements. For example, consider a regulatory change requiring the organization to adjust an operational process in order to bill for a particular service. In this case, the solution must be compliant and operational-friendly, but who’s responsible for making that happen?
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The revenue cycle is the process that starts with a patient’s initial appointment and ends with full payment for services. It encompasses all the administrative and clinical functions that contribute to collecting patient service revenue. For healthcare organizations that provide services to patients, the revenue cycle is the organization’s financial lifeblood.
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“When it comes to the compliance program, effective communication is essential for building strong relationships, resolving conflicts and gaining buy-in. One of the most valuable interpersonal tools to help you achieve these goals is assertive communication. It allows you to express your thoughts, needs and boundaries in a clear and respectful manner.”
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Traditionally, many healthcare compliance programs have left the work of patient safety and quality to other departments. However, according to the Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG), “Entities should incorporate patient safety/quality oversight into their compliance programs.”
OIG’s recent emphasis on patient safety and quality is not necessarily a call for compliance programs to take over these efforts. Rather, it’s a reminder that a compliance program should be designed to address the significant risks health care organizations face, which includes patient safety and quality of care.
How can your compliance program answer the OIG’s call and include patient safety and quality in your oversight efforts? This blog explores four practices to integrate safety/quality concerns into compliance practices.
1. Build a Strong Compliance Committee
2. Provide Safe Reporting for Safety/Quality Concerns
3. Get Your Governing Board Involved with Quality of Care
4. Nurture Relationships with Quality and Safety Leaders
Most mature compliance programs have a compliance committee in some form or fashion. To build stronger safety and quality representation, include individuals responsible for quality assurance and patient safety as members of the committee.
A strong compliance committee should ensure that appropriate auditing and monitoring of patient safety and quality take place on a regular basis. The OIG goes as far as suggesting that “Compliance committees of entities directly furnishing patient care, particularly entities such as hospitals, long-term care facilities, and other entities providing residential care, should also assess staffing for nursing, therapy, and other clinical services to ensure that the entity has the appropriate quantity, quality, and composition of care providers.”
Compliance programs establish lines of communication for reporting concerns, and anyone aware of patient safety or quality concerns must know how to report such incidents or issues. They must also have confidence they won’t face retaliation.
Awareness of incidents involving safety or quality is often the first step in developing a correction plan, so it’s essential that those who report know how their information is protected.
Steps have been taken at the federal level to encourage reporting and analysis of medical errors. The Patient Safety Act and Rule provide federal privilege and confidentiality protections for patient safety information called the Patient Safety Work Product (PSWP). PSWP includes data, reports, records, analyses and written or oral statements related to patient safety events.
More about the types of protections at the federal level can be found here: https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-professionals/patient-safety/index.html
Governing boards of healthcare entities have ultimate accountability for ensuring quality of care, and their involvement can also ultimately benefit compliance outcomes.
There are many resources available to educate your board on their responsibilities related to quality. These include:
Read and share these with board members to help them stay informed more easily.
Compliance departments aren’t expected to take over the detailed, day-to-day management of quality and patient safety programs. However, it’s essential that compliance leaders develop productive working relationships with leaders and in-house experts within the organization’s quality and patient safety programs.
One way to develop productive working relationships is to better understand what quality and safety leaders do. A good resource for learning more about the standards, goals and language often used by quality and safety leaders is the Institute for Healthcare Improvement or IHI (https://www.ihi.org/).
This organization offers both introductory, intermediate and advance learning opportunities for those who want to become better-versed in quality and patient safety topics. The IHI Open School (https://www.ihi.org/education/ihi-open-school) is a great place to start. And for those looking for more formal recognition, the IHI offers certifications, such as the Certified Professional in Patient Safety (CPPS)™.
The call for compliance programs to become more involved in an organization’s patient safety and quality efforts is getting louder from agencies such as the OIG. It’s also smart business practice.
In summary, this blog has covered four ways to begin the process:
With these practices in your toolkit, you’ll be on the path to a stronger, more effective compliance program.
And to help with overall regulatory analysis and operations, learn more about how YouCompli compliance software can support your mission. The tools include capabilities to easily map and track responsibilities across functions.
CJ Wolf, MD, M.Ed. is a healthcare compliance professional with over 22 years of experience in healthcare economics, revenue cycle, coding, billing, and healthcare compliance. He has worked for Intermountain Healthcare, the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, the University of Texas System, an international medical device company and a healthcare compliance software start up. Currently, Dr. Wolf teaches and provides private healthcare compliance and coding consulting services as well as training.
“It’s really simple – people get hooked on stories, and the tales stick with us. For example, once upon a time, there was a girl named Cinderella. Not only does that line open every fairy tale, but it also won’t leave your mind, no matter how old you get. That’s the same result you want for compliance communication and training, right?”
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“Compliance in healthcare isn’t just about meeting regulatory requirements – it’s about protecting patients, maintaining trust, and ensuring operational efficiency. Too often, compliance is treated like a separate function and oftentimes a bit disconnected from department heads, operations and leadership.”
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There have been many times where we have talked to auditors or inspectors who wanted to know if training occurred. While the answer was yes, there also have been times where we didn’t have any concrete documentation to support it, save for the Outlook meeting invite with everyone’s name on it. Even more surprisingly, there have been times where that has been accepted. Now, call it chance, dumb luck, or we dodged a bullet, but this is not always the case.
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