Organizational culture takes shape when certain behaviors within an organization become the norm. When you prioritize behaviors like compliance, over time, it turns into the fabric of your organization. As a result, your current employees and future talents will automatically follow them, making compliance an essential part of their work.
The biggest benefit of following a compliance culture is that your operations will always be within the established guidelines, resulting in zero fines and penalties. Besides saving you millions of dollars each year, this compliance culture will also increase your reputation and brand image among your stakeholders, and provide a good standing within your industry.
But how do you create a culture of compliance?
Read on to learn as we explore different strategies you can use to ensure continuous compliance with all the necessary regulations.
Commitment from the Leadership
The first step to building a culture of compliance with HIPAA and other regulations is a commitment from the leadership. The CXOs and the Board of Directors must understand the need for compliance and its benefits to the organization, and strive to adhere to the established guidelines. When this commitment comes from the top, the rest of the employees are likely to follow suit. More importantly, you will have access to the required resources for building such a culture.
Appoint a Compliance Officer
Start with appointing a compliance officer responsible for ensuring that every process and activity in your organization meets the required guidelines. Depending on your organization’s size and the mandatory compliance requirements, you can choose to have one officer or a compliance team.
Another advantage of having a compliance officer is that all employees know whom to contact in case of a breach or any other known non-compliance. Based on this input, the compliance officer can provide further directions in addressing the gaps and ensuring compliance.
Offer Continuous Training
Conduct regular training for all your employees, including the management. Provide a mix of different resources and formats to ensure that every employee understands HIPAA and its regulations, including their responsibilities towards them. Make these training programs continuous to reinforce the guidelines and ensure they understand the provisions. Encourage feedback and questions to ensure your employees are clear on their roles and responsibilities.
Robust Policies and Procedures
Create concise and clear policies to explain your organization’s compliance goals and the specific processes for storing, handling, and sharing PHI. These policies should address various aspects of HIPAA, including privacy rules, security safeguards, breach notification requirements, and patient rights. Regularly review and update these policies to align with regulatory changes and to address emerging security threats.
In particular, create a process for reporting breaches and non-compliance activity, as you can take proactive steps to mitigate their impact. Experts even recommend an anonymized reporting channel to encourage more employees to raise issues.
Technology
Technology plays a big role in creating a culture of compliance, especially in HIPAA, which focuses largely on protecting the security and privacy of a patient’s Protected Health Information (PHI). You can leverage these software platforms to protect PHI from unauthorized access, disclosure, or alteration. This includes implementing encryption, access controls, audit trails, and other security measures to safeguard electronic PHI (ePHI). Regular security assessments and audits also help identify vulnerabilities and ensure compliance with HIPAA’s security standards.
Thus, these are some aspects that can help you create a culture of compliance, and enable you to reap the benefits that come with it.
Final Words
In all, creating a culture of compliance eases the process of meeting the guidelines of standards like HIPAA, GDPR, and more. In this article, we discussed the many ways to create a culture of compliance, and we hope you can use them to build a compliant-first organization.