In some industries, policies and procedures matter more than others. Healthcare is one of those industries.
We all need ways to track policies and procedures to ensure they are met, and have standards and enforcement methods to ensure proper action is taken. The problem is a lot of companies manage their policies and procedures in archaic manners.
Is a word document really the best place to store important documentation? Or placing it in a shared file on your Google Drive, where anyone has access to read, change, and share?
This is how policies and procedures quickly become out of date. Or misplaced.
Healthcare providers usually face one of four problems with policy and procedure management:
1. Documentation is stored electronically as a word or excel file, often on someone’s hard drive. Not only is it at risk of becoming outdated, but it also has the potential for becoming lost or misplaced.
2. Documentation is old and outdated, and is usually only updated when a problem occurs.
3. A standardized practice isn’t in place to ensure the policies are updated on a regular basis. It’s not an easy process when changes need to be made.
4. Review procedures have never been established. In some cases, policies haven’t been updated in years because an organization has never come up with a strategy on how to keep the documentation active.
With so many ways to manage and update what appears to be a simple part of doing business, it’s often one of the first things to fall under the “out of sight, out of mind” category.
How does that work for you when an emergency arises?
If a security breach occurs, policies and procedures are the only way you’ll have a plan of action in place. It’s how you’ll get through losses and lawsuits. It’s how you’ll recover and stay in business.
What’s a practice to do?
Create a management system that ensures your policies and procedures deliver a fully workable solution. That it’s developed with compliance officers in mind, and is kept in a working format that is easy to use and easy to track and update.
Does your management system do all of that?
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