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Compliance risk management is an ever-present challenge for compliance officers at healthcare organizations. It is a complex and layered responsibility that requires cooperation across departments and collaboration among all staff members to keep patients safe, limit financial exposure, and maintain operational stability and accountability.
All the steps that go into mitigating risk and preparing for audits can easily become overwhelming when handled through disjointed, manual processes. If it falls apart, and gaps are found in an audit, your organization could face significant financial and operational penalties.
Thankfully, advances in compliance technology have paved the way for digital solutions that can help ease the burden of compliance. Healthcare compliance management software can help you mitigate compliance risks and improve audit outcomes by providing staff greater accessibility to information and documents, ways to quickly surface potential gaps, and AI-enhanced technology that improves speed and accuracy in completing complex compliance tasks.
Here are a few major ways healthcare organizations can manage and mitigate risks using healthcare compliance software.
Ready to evaluate compliance software options? Start here.
What Is Risk Management in Healthcare?
Risk management is a crucial aspect of the healthcare industry. It involves a variety of complex systems, procedures, and processes, designed to minimize risks to patients. Although traditionally focused on ensuring patient safety and mitigating medical errors, risk management in healthcare has evolved to encompass a range of other factors such as cybersecurity, legal and regulatory compliance, and financial liability.
The rapid pace of technological advancement and medical science further compounds the challenges faced by healthcare organizations with respect to risk. It’s a complex area that requires careful monitoring and assessment. Efforts to enhance healthcare security risk assessment are critical to achieving successful patient outcomes and protecting organizations from potential risks — and compliance officers are at the forefront.
How Better Systems Reduce Risk and Improve Audit Outcomes
Technology is a healthcare compliance officer’s best friend when it comes to tracking and validating compliance across the organization. Here are some of the key components of compliance software that help mitigate risk:
Easily Accessible Data
One of the main ways compliance software is able to mitigate risks is by making relevant data more accessible. If you want to find out if staff are deviating from a particular policy, you can quickly review incident reports to identify trends within a department to get to the root cause. When your facility is able to see and manage compliance, risk avoidance becomes easier.
Accessible data also extends to reporting and audits. When your facility needs to follow up on an incident or show proof of compliance to an auditor, it’s vital to have that information readily available and on-hand. Organizations that prioritize data accessibility will find themselves better-positioned to prevent incidents because they understand the factors that contribute to them.
Up-To-Date Training
The healthcare industry is a dynamic and ever-changing field that demands facilities follow strict protocol to maintain compliance. Workforce training is one of the best ways to proactively reduce risks because it can be updated and adjusted quickly and delivered at just the right time. With built-in learning tracking and reporting, you’ve got proof of completion at your fingertips so an auditor can determine if your organization did all they could to prevent an incident or breach.
Using a learning management system (LMS) removes the burden of research regulations, updating courses, and compiling completion reports from multiple sources. Choose a LMS with a research team that keeps up with training requirements and makes course assignment easy to shield your organization from risk.
All-In-One Policy Management
Anyone who has worked on a compliance team will tell you, the risk management process can be incredibly long and confusing. Tedious tasks — such as gathering the necessary records and collecting employee signatures — can eat away at your precious time. But even though it takes time away from other important duties, risk management must be performed to ensure patient and employee safety.
Consolidating compliance documents into a healthcare policy management system not only cuts down on the time spent monitoring and managing compliance efforts; it implements a proactive approach to risk. In the event a risk is identified, compliance officers can quickly access the necessary documentation to address it, and have proof of employee review with automatically tracked acknowledgements or electronic signatures.
Automated Exclusions Monitoring
Manual “point-in-time” exclusion checks are increasingly seen as negligent because automated systems are now readily available. Organizations who are not monitoring exclusion databases are dramatically increasing the risk of an excluded provider seeing patients — plus it’s a guaranteed finding for many regulatory and accrediting bodies. A better system automates exclusion checks with a direct API to state and federal databases, including OIG, SAM, and DMF. Checks are completed on an NCQA-compliant schedule with automated alerts to reduce compliance risks, administrative burden, and the impact of a failed audit.
License Verifications and Expiration Reminders
A provider practicing without an active license is arguably one of a healthcare organization’s greatest risks. Today’s best healthcare credentialing software make it easy to stay ahead of expiration dates with customizable reporting and automatic provider reminders. Check status in real time and set up monthly emails with a upcoming license and board certification expirations. Automated license verification even retrieves a document image and trusted URL for easy verification. Work efficiently and maintain an accurate record of provider data to protect your organization from one of the most prevalent audit risks.
Reduce Risk With Cloud-Based Compliance Software
Effectively managing risk is highly beneficial for organizations to maintain patient safety, regulatory compliance, financial stability, and organizational reputation. By implementing effective systems, healthcare organizations can take a proactive approach with features such as automation, high-quality training, and effective policy management.
MedTrainer, some of the most effective healthcare compliance software for today’s healthcare organizations, brings all workforce compliance tasks into one easy-to-use platform. By partnering with MedTrainer, businesses can equip themselves with the necessary tools to maintain compliance, while growing their operations.