Events & Resources

Compliance officers in the healthcare arena must be nimble thinkers, not just naysayers and rule quoters, in order to find success and add value to their organizations.

HealthStream asked Melinda Sawyer, DrPH, MSN, RN, CNS-BC, the Director of Patient Safety and Education for the Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality for her insight on how healthcare can achieve high reliability. She responded with two best practices.

Recognizing the role data plays in training is good, but knowing how to utilize it to provide not only quality training, but programs that are tailored to organizational goals and employee needs and skill sets is crucial.

Having a set of core competencies will be “incredibly helpful” in addressing the current clinical research associate (CRA) shortage. This will benefit those transitioning into clinical research, as well as those making lateral or vertical moves in the clinical trial workplace.

A sometimes-daunting array of processes and technologies is putting a new kind of pressure on clinical research professionals that demands innovative training and a core reassessment of how to demonstrate skillsets.

Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act requires the availability of qualified interpreters for any persons with limited English proficiency and can impose corrective action or monetary penalties for failure to comply.

The demands on clinical research professionals to deliver high-quality study data more quickly and efficiently have arguably never been greater, but the industry continues to shy away from adapting technologies and new best practices that could help lighten the load.

Implementing a new software solution to manage conflicts of interest (COI) can be a daunting effort for an organization. The team must be fully prepared and engaged. Here are ten best practices that can help ensure a successful implementation.

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, known throughout the healthcare world as HIPAA, was signed into law by President Bill Clinton in August of 1996. In the 20 years since, HIPAA has become one of the most widely cited and discussed regulations. The actual law went into effect in 2002 and 2003.

Health literacy is the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions.

Do you use a paper-based system for Competency and Performance Management? What if you were asked to provide a report to assess the competency of the entire organization on a skill such as blood transfusion? How long would that take you? What if your manager asks you to identify only employees who ‘Did Not Meet Expectations’ for this competency? Even worse, what if she asks “How does this compare to last year?’

With so much negative press coming out daily about compliance and so many sweeping changes being enacted in the human resources realm, especially in healthcare, there is no better time to make sure that your organization is in order.

CMS expects HealthStream and healthcare facilities to fully comply with all of the official protocols for each CAHPS survey. This is especially complicated because the rules are not consistent between programs.

The hospice industry has been subject to increasing regulation by governmental and accrediting entities. To stay up-to-date in this rapidly changing environment—and to continue to provide effective interventions for patients nearing the end of life—continuing education is a must.

A CIA requires significant attention, data collection, legal defense, negotiation, new systems, new policies, oversight, and enforcement, possibly for many years. Healthcare facilities of all types, including hospitals, pharmaceutical manufacturers, long-term care, physician groups, and more have all seen increases in CIAs. Yet, these organizations often struggle with what to do if a recipient of one.

Can you confidently say that your training initiatives are effective, that your employees are well trained, and that patients are safe? Do you have reliable data that allows you to strategically deploy training and manage your training costs? Are you prepared for your next audit? KnowledgeQ® is HealthStream’s answer to the healthcare industry’s demand for a strategic approach to annual mandatory training. The stakes are too high to continue a “check-the-box” exercise that offers almost no visibility into the cost of delivering training and whether expenditures could be eliminated or redirected to more effective initiatives.

Last month we looked at the growing problem of ransomware and the potentially devastating impact it can have on systems, patient information and the entire operations of your facility. Ransomware is just one of many security issues that every facility needs to be concerned with and take steps to prevent. The list of security concerns includes physical security, social engineering, phishing, social media, mobile devices, access to patient records, malicious software and more.

Imagine you come into work one morning and the entire computer network is shut down and all files are inaccessible! That’s what happened to a friend of mine who owns a business in New Jersey. On their network were two letters from hackers that had hacked into their computer system overnight – one that contained a link where they could get their ENCRYPTED files and network back and another that told them how to get the special software key needed to decrypt those files.

Like Chipotle, your organization may have a social media policy that bars employees from making “disparaging, false” statements about the company. Chipotle’s intended policy to protect their public image from unflattering social media posts by their employees.

Each year there are new and expanded healthcare regulations that must be understood, addressed and communicated to staff. The pace of regulations and responsibilities continues to accelerate. Recent examples include patient engagement, ICD-10, readmissions reduction, Healthcare Associated Infections, physician arrangements, and on and on and on. These are the shiny, new puppies that grab our attention. Because they are (relatively) new, we devote a lot of attention to these issues as there is a need to develop plans of action for each new area. At the same time, you need to remain vigilant on older regulations.