Question

A rural country hospital facility provides health care services to over 35,000 citizens, with a high percentage being older Americans who have retired to this area of the country. The hospital administrator has asked the Vice President of Risk Management to attend a meeting with the senior staff next week in the Board Room. The hospital administrator has asked Vice President of Risk Management to present areas of opportunity for increasing the hospital’s risk management strategies to ensure a litigation-free environment for the facility, its patients, and its employees. During the meeting, the Vice President of Risk Management reports that all the continuous quality improvement (CQI) minutes for the past 3 months of meetings have been reviewed. Although most areas are being adequately resolved, there are some that need more attention, especially from the senior staff. Before specifically addressing those points, the Vice President of Risk Management briefs the staff on the major areas of risk for the hospital. They are: 1. Employee-driven adverse actions against the facility 2. Medication errors 3. Surgery/Treatment errors 4. Patient falls 5. Patient elopements 6. Security breaches in secured areas 7. Inaccurate coding and billing for government/insurer reimbursements Now that the senior staff is aware of the major areas of risk concern, you, as the administrator in charge of all hospital business operations, assign each of these areas of concern to the respective director, such as the Directors of Human Resources, Nursing, Medical, Social Services, and Facility Security. Their reports of assessment, along with recommendations for achieving full compliance and reducing the hospital’s litigation exposure, are due at the end of the month.

Questions: 1. While this situation has many areas of risk that are considered a top priority, focus on patient privacy and information disclosure (HIPAA violations). Which department is responsible for leading the initiative? As the administrator, describe your approach for managing this directive. Do you create a special projects team? How do you gather pertinent data for a category? What tools would you use? 2. How do you determine if you are meeting the industry standards for this area of risk? 3. Would you change any current policies or procedures? How and why? 4. How would you train the affected staff with regard to this area of risk? 5. What are the sanctions, penalties, or government investigations that could present a worst-case scenario if not addressed?

Answer 1

1. While this situation has many areas of risk that are considered a top priority, focus on patient privacy and information disclosure (HIPAA violations). Which department is responsible for leading the initiative?

Worried about patient confidentiality, such as unsuitable access to or discovery of protected information, information breaches, and introduction to deception, individuality theft, medical record stealing, and other damaging incidences. These subjects also posture noteworthy danger to practices in the procedure of injured practice and patient associations, soundings, and reviews as well as expensive forfeits. The many expediencies that come with skill also come with errands to healthcare amenities. Though patient privacy has extended been a significant theme in healthcare, a nonexistence of implementation has mainly left this vital component on the back burner in many practices.

As the administrator, describe your approach for managing this directive. Do you create a special projects team? How do you gather pertinent data for a category? What tools would you use?

-Settle the enclosed entity has lately accomplished a complete Security Risk Valuation.

-Settle action substances recognized within the Security Risk Valuation have been accomplished or are on a sensible timeline to conclusion.

-If the association has not applied any of the addressable security values, settle within the group strategies and events why the addressable application normal was not sensible and suitable, and what another security events were applied.

-Safeguard the society has applied a suitable breach announcement strategy that meets values.             

2. How do you determine if you are meeting the industry standards for this area of risk?

-Safeguard healthcare providers have applied the Notice of Privacy Practices per the approaches obligatory by HIPAA privacy guidelines.

-Confirm healthcare providers have suitably applied policies and measures to reservation the truthfulness of PHI, counting interior workforce PHI infrastructures.

-Settle suitable training has been achieved and suitably recorded.

-Check that suitable policies and actions for security protections are in residence per the managerial, corporeal, and practical safeguard strategies.

-Check suitable inventory and record safety logs are accomplished, up to day, and meet supplies.

3. Would you change any current policies or procedures? How and why?

Practices must comprehend the dangers they are captivating if compliance is not an importance. Again, the dangers to your patients and your repetition can have an expensive and demanding ripple consequence. Though applying a compliance package may seem intimidating at primary, once in place you’ll find preserving it is forthright, and it will be additional cost operative than the another. Get support and leadership if desirable to mature and preserve a compliance database and be a practical contributor in compliance strategy expansion. Acquiring a prepackaged folder with the determined of modifying it is improbable to serve for most performs, and can be harmful in the occasion of a review.

4. How would you train the affected staff with regard to this area of risk?

While poignant patient health records from paper records to electronic information has shaped augmented difficulties and anxieties for protected health information (PHI) safety, the transfer has previously produced several welfares and potentials to harvest many additional. Electronic health records (EHRs) make it calmer for clinicians to portion information with one additional, which helps improve conduct, reduce replication of amenities, circumvent medicine struggles, and transport other welfares. It has also assumed increase to the ground of healthcare informatics, which customs large amounts of information to aid providers achieve the health and wellness of inhabitants while refining patient safety and gratification as well as sinking the price.

5. What are the sanctions, penalties, or government investigations that could present a worst-case scenario if not addressed?

Recent occurrences, such as the 2015 breach of tens of millions of associate archives at reputed Inc., validate that the danger is very actual. Hitherto not all subjects’ necessity be large gauge in instruction to generate headaches for healthcare administrations. Somewhat as humble as an operative fast illegal access to a personality patient’s PHI and distribution it finished their community media linkage can generate a desecration of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). The outcome can be rigid financial disadvantages for the provider as glowing as ruining its reputation.