Ep. 18 – Incorporating Quality and Patient Safety into Your Compliance Program

Does your compliance program incorporate quality and patient safety issues? Or, are you treating the two areas as separate and distinct departments? The OIG’s General Compliance Program Guidance recommends all healthcare providers incorporate quality and patient safety oversight into their compliance processes. 

Specifically, the OIG recommends:

• Senior leaders responsible for quality and patient safety provide regular reports to the Board;
• Compliance Officers address oversight of quality and patient safety compliance in their Board reports;
• Individuals responsible for quality assurance and patient safety serve on the Compliance Committee;
• The Compliance Committee receives regular reports from senior leadership on quality, patient safety, and adequacy of patient care, including for hospitals and long-term care facilities, staffing information; and
• The Compliance Program includes quality audits and reviews, including root cause analysis of quality and safety incidents, corrective action plans, and tracking of the implementation and effectiveness of these plans.

The OIG also stresses the Compliance Officer should have the resources needed to conduct internal quality audits and incident reviews and include quality-related compliance issues in the organization’s risk assessment.

Are you struggling with how to incorporate quality and patient safety into your compliance program? Listen to this week’s podcast where we discuss how to incorporate quality into your compliance program in light of the OIG’s guidance.