Raising Compliance and HIPAA Awareness With Monthly Tips

When an employee from the health information management (HIM) department at Stormont Vail Health in Topeka, Kansas, was scanning a document into a medical chart, she realized that the physician office—which was responding to a request for information from a life insurance company—had scanned the requested part of the medical records on the hospital’s copier and emailed it directly from there. As a result, the email, with patient information, went out unencrypted. After the employee realized the copier doesn’t encrypt emails, the employee reported that to Barbara Duncan, HIPAA privacy officer at Stormont Vail Health. Episodes like this are prime material for monthly tips, and she turned it into a teachable moment. Duncan emailed all employees a reminder that emails generated at the copier aren’t encrypted and should be forwarded to their computer to send securely from there (see below). “If there is anything that comes to our attention privacy wise, I come up with a HIPAA tip and email it once or twice a month,” Duncan says. Compliance Officer Christine Hogan-Newgren does the same for compliance issues. Contact Duncan at bduncan@stormontvail.org and Hogan-Newgren at choganew@stormontvail.org.

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