Navigating Compliance Challenges in Healthcare Documentation

Healthcare compliance is a critical element of any healthcare organization - if compliance is breached, there can be serious repercussions for healthcare providers, administrative staff, and even patients. That’s why it’s so important to continuously monitor compliance and ensure that legal, ethical, and professional standards are being met, as well as communicated to everyone associated with the organization. Luckily, there’s a way to keep the process simple and streamlined: healthcare document management software.

What is Healthcare Compliance? 

Before we get started on how to monitor and implement compliance, what is compliance in healthcare? Basically, healthcare compliance is a proactive process to prevent fraud, waste, or abuse within a healthcare organization. As mentioned, it ensures that legal, ethical, and professional standards are constantly being met and upheld by everyone working there. 

Healthcare compliance can range from broad professional conduct all the way down to patient privacy in paperwork. Regardless of which particular element it’s focused on, healthcare compliance is critical to an organization’s success. 

Related: Solve Your Paperwork Problems with Document Management Software

The 7 Components of Healthcare Compliance 

Healthcare compliance is composed of seven main items as follows:  

1. Written policies, procedures, and standards of conduct that articulate the organization's commitment to compliance. 
2. A compliance officer and compliance committee. 
3. Effective training and education for employees. 
4. Effective lines of communication between the compliance team and employees. 
5. Enforcement of standards through disciplinary guidelines that are published. 
6. Internal monitoring and auditing of risk. 
7. Procedures for responding to offenses and correction action to be taken. 

All of the information and its documentation can be quite a bit to juggle without the proper process in place. That’s where document management software like DigiDoc comes into play. 

Related: 3 Benefits of Document Version Control Software

How Can a DMS Help with Healthcare Compliance? 

Documentation management software can help you manage every aspect of healthcare compliance - here’s how you can utilize it to keep the process streamlined. 

• First of all, a data management system can ensure that your patient’s information stays private, secure, and safe from breaches. This ensures compliance with HIPAA and is absolutely critical to reduce the threat of lawsuits and other patient security issues. Paper records can be lost or given to the wrong person - a DMS eliminates this risk and stores sensitive patient information in a secure, centralized location for easy retrieval. 
  
  
• A DMS can also keep all healthcare compliance documents - including the written policies, procedures, standards of conduct, and disciplinary guidelines - secure, organized, and easily accessible by employees at all times. 

• A DMS also makes it easy to manage and organize the large amounts of information associated with healthcare compliance, as well as retrieve it instantly for review. Plus, the lack of paper documents means decreased costs for printing, ink, storage, etc. 

• Further, document management software can ensure accurate and streamlined record-keeping when it comes to offenses and corrective actions taken. This is critical for employee management and development. 

All in all, document management software is critical for healthcare compliance because it keeps all of an organization’s information organized and retrievable while at the same time ensuring that it’s secure. A DMS also helps to cut down on human error, increases efficiency, and cuts down on costs associated with healthcare compliance. 

Ensure Healthcare Compliance with DigiDoc 

Ready to see how DigiDoc can assist you in maintaining healthcare compliance? Contact us today for a consultation.