Mike Sandulak (mike.sandulak@providence.org) is Executive Director, Investigations and Physical Security, at Providence Health, Portland, OR.

Having an effective investigation function is essential for a successful compliance program, as investigations provide the opportunity to identify new risks and problems early, ensure harm is promptly stopped, identify root causes of an issue, and are used to assist leadership in assuring that issues are resolved. For these reasons, having a work plan in place after an investigation is just as important as the investigation itself. There are four parts of this work plan: