Health Information Compliance Alert

Training Tip:

Case Study--You Can't Skimp On Training For Temps

Here's how one compliance officer trains all her personnel to protect patients' PHI.

It's not easy to offer HIPAA training to employees who will only be in your organization for a short period of time - but failure to do so could open your facility to enforcement scrutiny.

"Our temporary access training was tricky,  but we decided that temps must receive the same training as everyone else," says Kelly Moore, privacy and security officer for Cogent Health Care, a hospitalist company with locations in Florida and California.

Moore uses group training for temps who will be in the organization for a long time. However, for short-term employees--think three weeks or less--she relies on one-to-one training followed by "self training tools like a PowerPoint presentation with a quiz at the end or a security worksheet." All session documents and training materials are then kept in temporary employees' files.

Good idea: Moore also implemented a training hierarchy that directs temps' follow-up questions to staff members. That reinforces staffers' compliance knowledge and allows supervisory and compliance staff to focus on other matters.

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