Maintaining HIPAA Compliance

One of the compliance measures the college employs to ensure that HIPAA policies are being followed is through monthly audits performed by the college privacy officer. Cathy Beatty conducts HIPAA walkthroughs to ensure that keycard protected clinic areas doors are kept closed, shred bins remain locked without any visible papers within reach of the opening, clinic faculty, staff, and interns are easily identifiable by wearing their clinic badges, and that personnel can answer basic HIPAA questions. The most frequently encountered errors are lack of awareness that Cathy serves as our Privacy Officer and staff member not wearing their ID badges. Additionally, Cathy conducts random audits of patient charts to ensure that no improper access has occurred from any person without a direct work or care relationship to the patient.