Catherine Boerner (cboerner@boernerconsultingllc.com) is President of Boerner Consulting LLC, New Berlin, WI.
I really like sending out a compliance survey when performing a compliance program effectiveness review. It is even better when the health system has already been measuring the effectiveness of its program with a compliance survey over the years and I can see how it has benchmarked against itself. It is a great way to show the board the awareness and trust in the program is high or increasing from year to year. Even just the exercise of sending a compliance survey creates awareness of the program, because employees may look the “correct answers” up. It can also help employees refocus on their responsibilities to report compliance concerns so risks to the organization can be addressed internally and timely before something has been going on inappropriately for a long time without being detected. No one likes surprises, and we are all on the same team.
