The Benefits of Integrated Healthcare Compliance Management
Integrated healthcare compliance management consists of managing a healthcare organization’s compliance obligations and activities holistically in order to avoid business units duplicating compliance requirements or implementing compliance measures that conflict with other compliance measures. The benefits of integrated healthcare compliance management include a reduction in costs, an improvement in patient safety, and a streamlined approach to regulatory compliance.
In a healthcare organization, although every member of the workforce has a responsibility for compliance, there can be multiple team leaders, managers, department heads, and Chief Officers who manage each business line’s compliance program. In many cases, the compliance program in each business line is vertically linear, with minimal crossover between (for example) Nursing, Administration, and Finance – the exception being crossovers with Information Security.
The Pros and Cons of Linear Healthcare Compliance Management
The linear compliance format has advantages inasmuch as those closer to the top of the chain of command are “subject matter experts” who can guide those further down the chain with regards to “subject matter compliance”. However, when each business unit maintains its own compliance program in a compliance silo, and other business units have similar regulatory requirements to comply with, the risk exists that closely matched compliance activities can be duplicated.
Most healthcare compliance requirements include some element of emergency preparedness and disaster recovery and, in theory:
- The Maintenance Department could be preparing to comply with OSHA’s proposed Emergency Response Standard at the same time as,
- The Information Security Department is implementing measures to comply with SOC 2 Disaster Recovery Requirements at the same time as,
- Nursing Teams are collaborating on CMS’ requirements for hospital preparedness for emerging infectious disease epidemics at the same time as,
- The Compliance Team is risk assessing the Emergency Mode Operation Plan and Disaster Recovery Plan required by 164.308(a)(7) of the HIPAA Security Rule.
In addition to potentially duplicating compliance activities, separate business units could be implementing compliance measures that conflict with, or reduce the effectiveness of, other compliance measures. In such circumstances, healthcare organizations are not only wasting resources, but could be impacting patient safety if a workforce member has to make decisions about which compliance measure to use during a stressful event such as a natural disaster.
Integrated Healthcare Compliance Program Management
Integrated healthcare compliance program management resolves the “cons” of vertically linear healthcare compliance management without eliminating the “pros”. It does this by combining linear compliance programs, removing the duplications, and streamlining closely matched regulatory requirements into one comprehensive requirement. The integration of healthcare compliance programs also helps resolve conflicts between opposing standards or regulations.
The primary benefits of integrated healthcare compliance program management are that each Department or Team has fewer compliance activities to conduct and, once a measure has been implemented to comply with a regulatory standard, workforce members only have one option to choose from. In addition, integrated healthcare compliance program management can reduce administration, documentation, and workforce training requirements.
Integrated Healthcare Compliance Policy Management
At a more granular level, integrated healthcare compliance policy management enables healthcare organizations to more easily assess how a regulatory change that would have previously impacted one siloed compliance program, might now impact the whole organization. This holistic view of healthcare compliance policy management supports better planning for regulatory changes and faster responses, and is particularly beneficial when large-scale regulatory changes occur.
The holistic view also gives organizations the opportunity to integrate voluntary standards into its compliance program to achieve (for example) Joint Commission Accreditation or ISO 7101:2023 certification. In many cases, it may only be necessary to tweak existing policies in order to achieve credentials that demonstrate the organization’s commitment to providing quality care, or – in the case of ISO/IEC 27001 certification – a good faith effort to comply with security regulations.
Conclusion
While changing from linear healthcare compliance management to a system of integrated healthcare compliance program management may require a change of mindset – and some compromises along the way – the benefits of reduced costs, improved patient safety, and streamlined regulatory compliance will make the effort worthwhile for many organizations. Organizations concerned about integrating a large number of compliance requirements into one can take advantage of compliance management software and should also seek advice from a healthcare compliance professional.
