How to develop effective compliance education
How to develop effective compliance education
One of the first areas compliance officers must consider when establishing or revising compliance training is to determine whether to conduct general training or specific training, such as documentation and coding reviews. Glenna Jackson, vice president for compliance at the Baltimore-based Medstar Health, says her organization struggled with that question, but resolved it by combining the two areas in order to establish a more homogeneous group for general training.
According to Jackson, that is only one of the many questions compliance officers face as they work to improve their compliance programs. Another is whether to use outside consultants to help develop their programs. When she took over compliance responsibilities at MedStar in 1998, she says she inherited a program that had been developed externally. "You can’t just hand things over to a consultant," she warns. "You have to be actively involved in everything they do because the product will be much better."
Christine Hogan-Newgren, vice president for compliance and internal audit at the Duluth, MN-based Benedictine Health System, which includes more than 70 facilities across 10 states, reports that when Benedictine reassessed its compliance training, it decided to redirect processes already in place, such as the use of quality assurance committees, mandatory inservice, and informal interdepartmental meetings.
Both compliance officers favor the use of committees in helping to establish the design and framework of the compliance program because it helps develop "buy-in" throughout and establish ownership in the organization. "That reduces the risk for you as a compliance officer," Jackson explains. "You are not going to be effective in delivering any hard messages unless you have a lot of support and buy-in from a lot of people."
According to the two compliance officers, there are several types of training that hospitals should consider, as well as several methods for selecting that training including focus groups. Jackson says she approached the use of focus groups with some trepidation because of the potential time it would take to implement. But she says those groups came up with many useful suggestions, such as opposition to "one-size-fits-all" training. Instead, those groups said they wanted a combination of stand-up, train-the-trainer, self-learning, Internet-based, and video training.
Subscribe Now for Access
You have reached your article limit for the month. We hope you found our articles both enjoyable and insightful. For information on new subscriptions, product trials, alternative billing arrangements or group and site discounts please call 800-688-2421. We look forward to having you as a long-term member of the Relias Media community.