Compliance Reporting In Healthcare

So, how do healthcare professionals and healthcare facilities show that they are in proper compliance with these rules and regulations that have been set for them?

Do they face random routine inspections by legal or other healthcare professionals? 

Oftentimes, healthcare professionals show compliance with these regulations by filling out a lot of very specific paperwork — which is why people often get asked the same questions every time they see a doctor and why they need to go through a variety of appointments just to get a referral for an exam. 

If that is how the healthcare professionals show compliance, how can the facility itself be monitored and show records of healthcare compliance? 

Well, since healthcare facilities are not able to report on their own behaviors and conditions , people have to make sure that their buildings are properly maintained and in compliance with the healthcare standards. 

The most common way that people can do this is by keeping detailed records and logs of the areas that require compliance reporting — such as temperature or storage of sensitive items such as medications or vaccines. 

To create and maintain these logs, many healthcare facilities use a variety of monitoring systems as well as software, such as SonicU, that help them to simplyily make sure that the facility is always functioning properly and complying with regulations. The software helps to make sure that the proper people are notified when something is not up to standard so that it can be addressed immediately and before a lot of damage can be done.

Compliance In Healthcare

Because the healthcare industry is so incredibly full of rules and regulations to make sure that everyone is being safe and healthy at all times, it can be extremely difficult to keep track of all of the healthcare compliance regulations. 

This is why so many healthcare facilities will implement a type of monitoring, reporting, and alerting software system, like Sonicu, that can help them to stay on top of all of these compliance regulations. 

Keeping up with health care compliance and regulations is an incredibly important task that all healthcare facilities must do to continue running smoothly and safely. 

So, to get a healthcare compliance certification, healthcare facilities must provide reports and logs showing that they are indeed in compliance with the standard regulations. Software systems, like Sonicu, that allow healthcare facilities to not only monitor but also create reports and analyze data from a single platform are incredibly useful for this purpose. 

One of the major benefits healthcare professionals realize after investing in a monitoring solution like Sonicu is spending less time manually logging temperatures and other critical environmental conditions like humidity, air pressure, ambient air temperature and noise. Sonicu can even connect to existing monitors that capture information like carbon monoxide, power outages, water/flooding and open doors. 

This powerful comprehensive view allows healthcare facility professionals to stay connected to all of their critical conditions, environments and assets from one software platform that can stand alone or be connected to an existing building automation system. 

These platforms can offer both detailed and summarized reports of all compliance-related points that are wanting to be monitored so that a healthcare organization can easily create and send reports detailing how their facilities comply with the standard regulations. 

Additionally, software systems can include alerting services that can help a healthcare facility address any concerns quickly and efficiently before they can cause problems or cause a lack of compliance with the regulations.

Compliance Reporting Examples

To make sure that all healthcare facilities are being compliant with the standard regulations, oftentimes healthcare facilities will have to participate in regulatory compliance reporting. Oftentimes there can be a very specific structure that these reports need to follow in order to be compliant with the reporting standards, but these standards can change from facility to facility as well as state by state. 

Because of this, it is important that healthcare facilities can keep detailed records of their compliance with the standard regulations in order to offer these reports during the regulatory reporting process.

There can be many different healthcare compliance examples — such as those regarding the temperatures in each room. Using a software system, like Sonicu, the facility can easily provide a detailed report of the temperature of each facility room to show that they are in compliance with the standard regulations. 

The 24/7 recording and monitoring technology can be immediately and continuously logged to the SMART Tools that can compile the data into a format that can be submitted during the regulatory compliance reporting process. 

This means that you’re always ready for a surprise inspection from the local, state or federal regulatory agency even from your mobile phone. This preparation provides immeasurable peace of mind across your organization. 

When coupled with the Sonicu SNAP calibration program, you will know that your sensor and probes are always NIST compliant. The vast majority of Sonicu clients take advantage of the Sonicu SNAP calibration program as it removes one more concern from their regulatory checklist. 

Healthcare Compliance Program

As mentioned above, the importance of compliance in healthcare cannot be overstated. This compliance is what keeps healthcare facilities able to function properly and smoothly so that people can get the help they need from these facilities.

If every single healthcare facility was able to make up its own reporting rules and regulations, it would be very difficult for people to ensure that everything was being held to the proper standard. For example, if one healthcare facility had a freezer room where they store medications set to a different temperature than another facility, a medication that needs to be kept at a very specific temperature may be completely ruined if it travels from one facility to another.

Patients trust that healthcare providers and working closely with regulatory bodies to ensure standards aren’t compromised so that patients always receive exemplary care. 

This is why there is such a strong need for regulatory compliance in healthcare facilities. These standardized regulations help to ensure that different healthcare facilities are all operating on the same level and that they are all able to work with each other as well. Additionally, having a standard set of regulations makes it much easier and more efficient when it comes to making sure that all healthcare facilities are operating smoothly and efficiently.

But most importantly, it’s about patient care. Standards exist and are strictly enforced to keep patients safe. 

Healthcare Compliance Software

Using a software system can greatly help healthcare providers and facilities to easily monitor their spaces and make sure that they are meeting healthcare compliance standards at any time. As technology continues to advance, it is becoming increasingly important for a healthcare facility to leverage software systems to help them ensure that they are meeting compliance standards. 

Finding the right healthcare compliance software for your facility can be a challenge because you need to make sure that the features and functionality of the software are going to benefit your monitoring and reporting processes without causing a huge learning curve for all of the people involved. 

Because of this, utilizing software, like Sonicu, which offers a unique combination of both monitoring technology as well as a software system to collect and manage your data can be extremely beneficial. 

Using the SoniCloud Dashboard, you can easily view all of the monitoring of your healthcare facility from any device you want and have 24/7 access to your data. This type of platform not only helps you to ensure that your facility is functioning as you need it to, but it can also help you to analyze your data and more effectively make decisions to increase the efficiency of the facility in the future as well.

Examples of this even include preventive maintenance and replacement as the software can show when freezers or refrigerators are beginning to show signs of aging or even being a lemon. It’s impossible to measure the value of getting a warning light signal from your refrigerator or freezer that can save you invaluable research and protect foods bound for vulnerable patients.  

Compliance

There are many different examples of compliance in healthcare because healthcare is an industry that is completely filled with very specific regulations and requirements. 

One example of healthcare compliance is the regulation of the creation and distribution of medications by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). 

These two institutions regulate the creation as well as distribution of medications so that they can make sure that medications, medical devices, and biological products are safe and effective from the point of manufacture through shipping and onto the point of injection. 

But, of course, this is not the only example of healthcare compliance. There are standards regarding patient care, HIPAA privacy, security, OSHA, billing, reimbursement, and many others. All of these examples really go to show the importance of regulatory compliance in healthcare — without these standards, it would be extremely difficult to make sure that every facility was following the proper procedures and operating how they should be to protect their patients.

Healthcare Compliance Software

There is a very strong culture of compliance in healthcare and the compliance reporting process is extremely important to determine how a healthcare facility is actually performing. 

This process of presenting the compliance report writing and data to an auditor (or multiple auditors) who will then review that report and ensure that your healthcare facility has indeed been in compliance with the standard regulations set by healthcare and legal professionals. 

The compliance report structure can differ depending on the specific standard regulations. 

For example, what has been deemed the standard regulations for the report structure in Wisconsin may be different from the report structure that is desired by healthcare facilities in California. 

However, it is essential that your healthcare facility adheres to the report structure and information that is desired by the individuals who are ensuring that your facility complies with the standard regulations.

YOUR RETURN ON INVESTMENT: OUR COMMITMENT 

Compliance reporting is critical to any healthcare facility but is only one reason customers collaborate with Sonicu. Saving money by reducing manual logging of critical environmental conditions and by slashing the administrative burden of completing complex reports is also an enormous value. 

And being connected to all your essential environmental monitoring sensors from your mobile device provides incredible peace of mind as you go about living your life outside of the office. Knowing that you’re an alert and a quick phone call away from avoiding a mishap provides immeasurable peace of mind. 

Finally, software is only as good as the people who support it. And Sonicu boasts a dedicated team of support professionals who are never more than a phone call or email away from solving your monitoring challenges. The world is an imperfect place, and we will be here to support your issues and keep your facilities and patients safe. 

That’s your return on investment.