Corporate Compliance Training: Mistakes and How To Avoid Them

Corporate compliance training helps healthcare organizations balance the need to provide top-notch care with adhering to a plethora of regulations.

In this article, dive into the details of corporate compliance training, how it is different from regulatory compliance, and get actionable insights to sidestep the most common mistakes made by healthcare organizations.

What Is Corporate Compliance Training?

Corporate compliance training for healthcare organizations is a structured program designed to educate employees about the legal, ethical, and professional standards they must follow in their roles. In essence, it’s like a rulebook and training session combined.

The goal is to reduce legal risks, uphold the organization’s reputation, and most importantly, ensure patient safety and trust. Think of it as giving healthcare workers a clear roadmap to make sure they’re always on the right side of the law and best practices.

What Is the Difference Between Corporate Compliance Training and Regulatory Compliance Training?

Corporate compliance refers to the ways in which a company ensures they are following their own internal compliance structure. Regulatory compliance involves following legal mandates and legislation as directed by governing bodies.

Here’s an easy way to think about it:

Regulatory compliance acts as a roadmap for healthcare.

Corporate compliance training is like a compass for navigating the roadmap.

Corporate Compliance Training Examples

Overview of cultural competency
Connecting the code of conduct to ethical behaviors
Establishing and maintaining audits and controls

Regulatory Compliance Training Examples

Management of biomedical waste (required by OSHA and USP)
Disaster preparedness (required by CMS)
Identification and reporting of critical incidents (required by HRSA and OIG)

There are some trainings that could work for both corporate compliance training and regulatory training as long as they meet the specific guidelines. For example, risk management and patient safety can meet CMS guidelines, but could also satisfy corporate training needs.

Common Corporate Compliance Training Mistakes for Healthcare Organizations To Avoid

Mistake 1: The One-Size-Fits-All Approach

Not all roles in a healthcare organization have the same compliance requirements. Tailoring training to specific roles ensures relevancy and engagement, which can translate into better retention of the information.

While it does take more time and resources to determine which roles need which trainings, in many cases you can reduce the number of courses required. This alleviates scheduling issues and the need to pull clinicians from patient care.

If using a learning management system (LMS), you can create a curriculum of all the corporate compliance training and regulatory training by role, so then when you have new hires or need to refresh annual training, all you have to do is assign the curriculum. See how it works.

Mistake 2: Using Generic Content

Corporate compliance training should be specific to your organization and its policies and procedures. For example, even if not required, you may want every employee to participate in a specific diversity course or a training related to your organization’s medical record retention policy.

Corporate compliance training topics that you want customized to your organization include:

Evaluation of compliance risk areas
Hiring practices
Healthcare insurance and billing compliance
Medical records releases and informed consents
Professional courtesy discounts for services
Diagnosis and procedure coding for medical services
Medical necessity and documentation
Business and medical records retention
Confidentiality
Patient rights
Employee safety, rights, and obligations
Environmental concerns

When choosing an LMS, make sure it is easy to create and upload your own courses so that you can provide these types of corporate compliance trainings to employees. When you upload your own course to an LMS, you can take advantage of the conveniences such as automated reminders, post-course assessments, completion certificates, and tracking.

Mistake 3: Neglecting Regular Updates

Compliance regulations, especially in healthcare, evolve frequently. Failing to update training content regularly can lead to outdated practices and potential violations. It’s like driving to a destination without a map or GPS. Those need periodic updates just like your training content!

If your team is responsible for creating and delivering all corporate compliance training, it can be very stressful to ensure you’re up to date on all changing regulations. A quality LMS however, makes the updates for you, and you can be confident that your staff is receiving the right information.

Mistake 4: Not Tracking Completion and Understanding

Simply delivering training isn’t enough. Organizations must monitor who has completed the training and assess their comprehension to ensure effectiveness. Using post-course assessments, you can better understand areas where your staff need to improve, and also areas where you can improve your training!

With a tracking system in place, you also have documentation to provide to your leadership team and surveyors to prove corporate compliance training was completed by all employees. Using a spreadsheet or sign-in sheets to track completion is very difficult and risky. The real-time reporting offered through an LMS may be advantageous to your organization.

Mistake 5: Overlooking Cultural and Language Barriers

Overlooking cultural and language barriers in corporate compliance training is a critical oversight that can hinder the effectiveness and inclusivity of the training process. Employees who face language barriers might not grasp key concepts, leading to potential compliance issues that are simply a result of misunderstanding. Moreover, cultural nuances often dictate how individuals perceive authority, responsibility, ethics, and even risk.

For these reasons, compliance training must accommodate different languages, cultural nuances, and be ADA and WAG compliant. If using a training vendor, ensure the vendor is providing training that meets all these requirements.

Mistake 6: Inadequate Training for Contractors and Temporary Staff

Excluding contractors and temporary staff from corporate compliance training is a risky oversight, one that can expose a healthcare organization to unnecessary vulnerabilities. While it might seem that these groups, given their transient nature, don’t require the same level of training as permanent employees, their actions are still directly linked to the company’s reputation and operational integrity.

Regulatory compliance often requires these groups to complete training and organizations are held fully-accountable for the actions of their temporary staff or contractors.

Get Corporate Compliance Training on Track With an LMS

Using a learning management system (LMS) to deliver corporate compliance training for healthcare organizations can simplify the process and remove the associated stress. MedTrainer’s all-in-one compliance platform was built specifically for healthcare organizations to streamline education, credentialing, and compliance.

Get in touch with us to learn more!