Health Information Compliance Alert

Compliance Strategies:

Crack Down On PHI Leaks With Staff Discovery Tools

Empower workforce members to log and minimize all incidental PHI exposures.

Monitoring for incidental disclosures of protected health information will be a constant endeavor, which is why you should involve staff in plugging up incidental PHI leaks.

Use one of the two approaches below designed by Margret Amatayakul, president of Schaumburg, IL-based Margret A. Consulting to educate staff on privacy issues:

1. Incidental Disclosure Findings. Identify instances where PHI is not maintained in a confidential manner. Write each instance on an incidental disclosure findings sheet, identifying date, time, location, and staff member responsible. Discuss a potential solution with the staff member and have each sign off on the finding sheet that the solution will be tried. Follow up one week later.

2. Incidental Disclosure Log. PHI is patient-identifiable medical information that should be kept confidential. Record on the incidental disclosure log the date, time, location, and staff member responsible. Discuss a potential solution and have each sign off on the log that the solution will be tried. Follow up one week later.

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