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The field of Health Informatics Health Informatics is catching up as a field of health and Information Technology. At its barest, it can be understood as being the area that concerns the use of IT in

What is Corporate Governance? In a broad sense, corporate governance can be defined as a set of processes by which corporations are run and administered. These are a collective function of the critical, core decision makers in the organization, such as Directors, CEO, managers, investors, stakeholders, shareholders, creditors, auditors and others. Corporate Governance sets out the methods and rules for making rules that govern corporate entities. Although business is the main concern and task of an organization, Corporate Governance occupies as important a position, because while the financial aspect of a business is all about profits, the Corporate Governance aspect is primarily about its integrity, values and reputation. Corporate Governance takes into consideration all aspects of the governance of the organization from critical standpoints such as ethics, regulatory aspects, policies and mission, etc. History of the growth of Corporate Governance Although Corporate Governance has been around for a number of decades in some or another form, it came to acquire proper shape and direction of late, following the collapse of very big multinationals such as Enron, WorldCom and others. It was felt that their shady dealings, which led to huge losses for their stakeholders and eventually to the businesses collapse, could have been averted if a proper regulatory framework of Corporate Governance were in place. This is the feeling that led to the passing of the Sarbanes Oxley Act, or SOX in the early 2000's. One of the core principles enunciated in SOX related to Corporate Governance. Elements of Corporate Governance As a result of the SOX Act and other legislations in other developed countries, such as the Cadbury Report of the UK and other legislations in the OECD nations; Corporate Governance is now administered through a well-defined set of principles. As a result of these legislations, Corporate Governance is now concerned with the following: Problems areas of Co

Medical Informatics : Medical informatics is an area that is growing at a fervid pace. Its growth is not likely to get hindered or slow down in the near future, due to the surge in its use in the healthcare and IT industries. Medical Informatics is a relatively recent development in the field of healthcare. It is interwoven into the development and application of IT-based innovations in the healthcare industry. Medical informatics is often synonymously and loosely used with other related words such as clinical informatics, nursing informatics, healthcare informatics and so on. Its associations with related or similar disciplines notwithstanding, one can draw a fairly clear idea of medical informatics. It can be described as the application, adoption, design and development of IT into activities relating to the healthcare industry. What is the objective of medical informatics? Medical informatics seeks to enhance knowledge and innovate in the healthcare field by using IT and its applications. Towards this end, it uses and merges the principles, knowledge, data, application, and the tools needed for applying these in the process of decision-making. Who are involved in the use of medical informatics? Medical informatics is used by almost everyone in the healthcare industry. These include physicians, nurses, billers, coders, many others who provide healthcare, and medical librarians. In addition, there are specialists who are tasked purely with working with medical informatics, such as Data analysts Hospital record managers, and Programmers and analysts in the industry. The rise and rise of medical informatics: The birth and growth of medical informatics has been tied to those of the IT industry, the Internet in particular. In a sense, they are twins, having started and grown in almost a conjoined fashion. Its early development started in the 1960s, very nearly contemporaneous with that of the Net. While the medium that brought it into existenc

Quality Management in Healthcare: Quality management in healthcare is a critical requirement for healthcare organizations. Making quality management patient-centric comes first. Adapting and implementing standards and tools is the next step towards this. Quality management in healthcare is of critical importance to the healthcare industry and the patient. Everyone in the loop -from physicians to practitioners to support staff -needs to be aware of the importance of quality management in healthcare. The most basic purpose of imparting high quality management in healthcare is to make sure that the patient is well taken care of. For this to happen, the healthcare setting has to implement systems and processes. Quality management centers on process management. If organizations have to ensure that meaningful quality management in healthcare is being implemented; they have to adhere to processes. Adapting standards and instilling processes into the healthcare system is how healthcare providers can assure quality in healthcare. Patient is at the center of quality management in healthcare: Obviously, the first step in the direction of implementing quality management in healthcare is to make the healthcare setting's care and processes patient-oriented and patient-centric. Quality management in healthcare begins with the patient and should be fully tuned to her needs. As patients' requirements and expectations vary over time; quality management has to keep upgrading itself to keep up with the changing needs and demands. In line with this, the following means can go a long way in ensuring quality management in healthcare: The healthcare setting has to identify goals for ensuring quality management in healthcare. Each department has to be given measurable goals to reach. Implementing quality standards goes a long way in ensuring that quality management in healthcare is imparted in the organization. Six Sigma, ISO 9001 and ANOVA are some of the popular standards and tools t

Overview: The connection between the Body, its physiology and particularly biochemistry, have been linked to the mind with particular emphasis upon emotions and stress. This can be easily substantiated in common everyday situations. Anyone who has observed a facial red flush triggered by some sort of embarrassment can attest to the foregoing connection. The emotions and stress play a key role in many if not all diseases and disorders: due to the vastness of the subject, we will focus on the application of the mind/body connection(MBC) to skin. This serves as an introduction to the field of psych dermatology which, although still in its infancy in the USA, is expanding as evidence with regard to the psychological component related to the etiology of skin diseases continues to grow. Concurrently, the field of Alternative techniques IN mind/body treatments continue to grow in leaps and bounds providing effective methods for integration with conventional cosmetic and dermaceutical treatment. This provides a dual complimentary pathway both for prevention and treatment of any/most skin disorders. Expanding on this model, we have already shown how the mind influences the body as per the above example. This general proposition can be extended to include specific skin disorders such as acne rosacea psoriasis eczema and atopic dermatitis to name a few. We will concentrate on Acne for the sake of this discussion. First, focusing on the B component of the BMC model, the primary lesion associated with acne is the formation microcomodones, which are small enough to proceed undetected until larger comodones appear later in the cycle. The latter cycle is initiated by peroxidation of squalene and unsaturated fatty acids present in human sebum. This leads to the foregoing lesions and pro- inflammatory mediators such as cytokines and interleukins followed by an increase of p.acnes on the epithelial cell wall together with increased film formation of the p.acnes is the same area This

A Basic Understanding of Shipyard Workplace Safety Shipyard Workplace Safety is a high importance, high criticality area for safety regulation. This is so because shipyards are among the most hazardous of places to work in. it is estimated that at any point of time, the number and incidences of injuries and fatalities in the shipyard industry is at least twice that of the next most hazardous industry, construction. This calls for urgent and important Shipyard Workplace Safety regulations. Present Shipyard Workplace Safety Regulations OSHA has a number of Shipyard Workplace Safety regulations for this industry. These need to be read with CFR Title 29 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 1915, which not only lay out regulations, but also prescribe codes and methods of implementation of these regulations. Why these two regulations need to be implemented together is that there may be a few hazards not covered by Shipyard Industry standards set out by OSHA. These gaps are covered by the regulations set out in CFR 1915, making these a well-rounded set of regulations for Shipyard Workplace Safety. The need for Shipyard Workplace Safety regulations The need for Shipyard Workplace Safety is acutely felt because of the sheer variety of hazards that present themselves in shipyards. Shipyards, which employ between a few dozen and a few thousand employees each, are a site of potentially serious accidents. Even if accidents do not occur, the very nature of work done at these shipyards can be dangerous and hazardous. Shipyard Workplace Safety is a core requirement that employers in this industry have to keep in mind and put in place. The nature of their work could range from and include any or many of these: Scrapping Demolition Electrical Fabrication Creating large and heavy steel or iron plates, sheets, beams, pipes and related items Soldering Drilling Dealing with propulsion systems Welding Shipyard Workplace Safety has to begin with an understanding of these issue

OSHA's Standards on Fire Protection in the Workplace : When it comes to Fire Protection in the Workplace; there are several guidelines to be followed. One could go by common sense, but it is not usually sufficient, which is why OSHA has standards relating to Fire Protection in the Workplace. Like it does for all its safety requirements; OSHA requires the employer to take obligatory steps for the protection of employees from fire. These are covered in Title 29 of the Code of Federal Regulations Part 1910 Subparts E and L; and Part 1926 Subparts C and F. Employer obligations are the core of Fire Protection in the Workplace Requiring employers to carry out roles during a fire emergency and training employees towards the same are the foundation of OSHA standards on Fire Protection in the Workplace. Training employees on OSHA's standards on Fire Protection in the Workplace entails training them on all the core areas of handling a fire: The ways of using fire exits The ways of using fire extinguishing equipment The ways by which to organize an emergency exit plan The ways of using fire exits: Fire Protection in the Workplace on fire exits involves having to put in place a well-designed exit route for employees, so that they escape during a fire easily. These should be done keeping in mind the structure of the building. Keeping the exit route free of obstacles is another important requirement of OSHA's standards on Fire Protection in the Workplace. The ways of using fire extinguishing equipment: Having portable fire extinguishing equipment is not mandatory for OSHA, but employees must be properly trained on their use, should an employer have one. These equipment have to be placed at a convenient location for everyone to access easily. The ways by which to organize an emergency exit plan: An emergency exit plan is required as part of Fire Protection in the Workplace for some kinds of employers. It is for those whose activity involves the heavy use of hazardous chemica

Understanding Medical Identity Theft and ways of preventing it Medical Identity Theft is a common phenomenon in today's situation, where most health records are digitized. Although a lot of precaution goes into the security and protection of these records, Medical Identity Theft is a cause for worry. medicalIdentityTheft The most common types of data that are stolen are Social Security Number (SSN), name and the Medicare number, the most potent tools with which to impersonate and manipulate data. Why do crooks steal medical data? Medical Identity Theft happens mainly because hackers and mischief-makers access protected data to lay hands on confidential information about patients, using which they obtain medical care on behalf of the person/s whose records they steal or purchase expensive medicines. In many cases, a Medical Identity Theft is detected only after one gets a bill for a purchase or service that was never made. medicalIdentityTheft Medical Identity Theft is also committed to buy drugs and obtain fake bills that are then submitted to Medicare in the name of the original holder of the medical record. These acts can significantly dent a person's credit rating. More importantly, when wrong information or fictitious diagnosis is made into the medical record, it can lead to dangerous consequences. Ways of protection of medical data The Office of the Inspector General (OIG), which comes under Health and Human Services (HHS), realizing the gravity of the problem of Medical Identity Theft, has formulated the "3D" approach to protect medical data and prevent Medical Identity Theft. These are: Deter: One of the ways of protecting medical data is to prevent Medical Identity Theft. Users should be cautious about parting with information to anyone who claims, over phone, to have a new scheme whose enrolment requires the Social Security Number. Detect:Many fraudsters accost people at accessible public places to announce supposedly "new" medical schemes. Governm

Health Insurance Market Reforms under Obamacare: The Patient Protection and Affordable Act (PPACA), or Obamacare, sets out a number of provisions for health insurance market reforms. Having been set in motion in March 2010; the PPACA sets out health insurance market reforms that are being implemented in stages from dates commencing generally from January 1, 2014. PPACA's health insurance market reforms are aimed at health insurance standards and group health plans. These reforms set out dates for the implementation of these reforms. They also prescribe penalties for noncompliance with these reforms. What kinds of market reforms are needed? The health insurance market reforms suggested by PPACA are almost singularly for group health plans. A group health plan is defined as one in which the employer makes a contribution into expenses accruing from the employee's health insurance plans. When an employer chooses to bring an employee's health plan under her coverage; the employer has to mandatorily comply with the provisions of the health insurance market reforms. Areas of the health insurance market reforms: These are the essential areas in which the health insurance market reforms are to be applied: Removal of lifetime and annual limits on essential health benefits: One of the primary provisions of the health insurance market reforms under PPACA is that it prohibits both lifetime and annual limits on essential health benefits, which were allowed some dollar limits prior to enactment of Obamacare. Preventive health services: An area of preventive health services that has undergone an amendment under the health insurance market reforms is that of no-cost sharing. Accordingly, employer plans are to offer preventive health services without requiring the employee to share the burden for this part of the plan. The three-month waiting period: The health insurance market reforms don't require a waiting period of over 90 days. A waiting period is the period that has

The Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1988 All clinical laboratory testing done on humans in the US, save those done for basic research and clinical trials, have to comply with the provisions of the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA). Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments, a set of federal amendments carried out in 1988 set out federal standards for carrying out clinical laboratory testing. A clinical laboratory is, according to the CLIA, a facility in which laboratory testing is done on samples procured from humans. This testing is done with the aim of obtaining information with the intention of evaluating health, using which clinicians diagnose, prevent, or treat disease. Having defined a clinical laboratory thus, the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments set out the regulatory guidelines on which clinical trials are to be administered. The fundamental aim of the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments is to ensure accuracy, efficacy, safety, reliability and efficiency of clinical trials. The Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments seek to do this by setting aside grades for a range of criteria that relate to these aspects of the clinical trial. These grades are given from a score of 1, meaning the lowest, to 3, the highest, to assess as many as seven criteria of a particular clinical trial. These seven criteria are: Knowledge Materials used in proficiency, quality control, and calibration of materials Features of operational steps Experience and training Troubleshooting of test system troubleshooting and maintenance of equipment Preparation of reagents and other materials Interpreting and judging the results of the tests Points to be borne in mind for enforcing provisions of the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments Provisions set out in the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments are to be enforced through a set of parameters. These include: Procedure manual A basic part of the Clinical Lab

Social media and healthcare: The advent of the social media into the healthcare industry has thrown open a hitherto unknown dynamic. It presents the industry the kind of opportunities that were hard to come by till now. Yet, it is full of challenges. It is now an inescapable fact and a given: the onslaught of the social media into the healthcare industry cannot be reversed. The wave is too strong to resist. The explosion in the use of social media has impacted the healthcare industry on a scale that is unprecedented. The universal pervasiveness of the social media Social media and healthcare have become great buddies mainly because of the sheer power of reach of the social media. What started out essentially as services that shared photos and messages has turned out to be a giant opportunity for the healthcare industry. Today, it is something that no one in the healthcare industry -or those outside it, such as the lay young population that seeks medical information - is insulated from. Now, not only patients, but also physicians and everyone of any significance in the healthcare industry use the social media to disseminate information. Social media and healthcare have become strongly paired also because they help in keeping the patient in close contact with the healthcare provider. It is no surprise that the social media have broken the barriers of age and geography in reaching out to the highest and widest range of users. Some trends about social media and healthcare: It is estimated that a fifth of the entire American population exchanged medical information over the social media in 2010 About three-fourths of all patients use the social media for some information before reaching a healthcare provider At least a thousand top US hospitals use social media for communicating with patients and providers Globally, up to half a billion people could be linking social media and healthcare by using the former Now, the challenges: Despite social media in t

Patient Safety in Medical Education A very important aspect of medical education that had been overlooked for a long time is patient safety. When patient safety in medical education gets relegated to the backseat; the result is there for everyone to see: something like close to a 100,000 deaths at the turn of the previous century, according to the alarming results of a comprehensive study carried out by the Institute of Medicine. The tragedy of these deaths is that these were preventable. This reinforces the belief that patient safety in medical education is the core factor, which if handled properly, can save thousands of lives. How does patient safety in medical education come about? It goes without saying that physicians and other caregivers practice in their professions what they learn in schools. So, patient safety in medical education has to be incorporated into the curriculum at the earliest stages. Hospitals, medical colleges and other institutes that impart medical education have now started taking more than mere baby steps in inculcating patient safety in medical education as a core part of teaching, the already heavily burdened curriculum in medical education notwithstanding. Efforts by medical education bodies Following the publication of the IOM report, the American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC) and the Curriculum Management and Information Tool (CurrMit) in the US and Medical Schools Council and the General Medical Council (GMC) in the UK sprang into action, announcing a slew of measures aimed at bringing about and reinforcing patient safety in medical education. Entire lessons and chapters are devoted to patient safety in medical education. Keywords and technical jargon relating to patient safety are now a highly visible aspect of patient safety in medical education. These are spread across all disciples and subjects of medical education, be it gynecology or anesthetics. What should curricula teach about patient safety in medical edu

Food Safety and Security are two faces of the coin : Food safety and security are two different, but closely related concepts. Although part of the same aspect, they vary in their application and meaning. Both are equally important in ensuring that populations of the world get food that is sufficient and nutritious. Food safety and security are complete without each other. Food safety complements food security, and vice versa. Food safety : Food safety is essentially about the safety of the ingredients that go into food. If food is being sourced from a farm, the food makers have to ensure that the farm has ensured safety standards in producing this food. Food safety is concerned about the amount of chemicals and fertilizers used in production of food. It is also concerned with how much residual pesticide, which could cause harm to humans when the food that is grown using it, is left in the final product, and so on. Food safety is related to and is dependent on factors such as demographics, inputs that go into the cultivation and production of food, availability of water for production of safe food, the use of energy sources in the safe production of food, climate change, etc. Now, food security : Food security, on the other hand, is about more about the food supply chain. When food arrives from the producer to the consumer, it goes through a complex chain that can many times span entire continents. Food may also be sourced and consumed locally. In either case, there is a need to ensure that the points that food travels in and reaches are secure. Ensuring quality throughout : The aim of food security is to ensure that food which travels through many chains and stages should be clean at all these stages. This means that security has to be ensured from rodents and other forms of disturbances at the agricultural fields in which food is produced, then at the granaries in which it is stored, at the routes that it travels, then at the location at which food is pr

HIPAA Breach Notification Rules and its new version : Let us begin at the beginning: What is breach notification? The term is pretty simple to understand. It means notifying the authorities whenever there is a breach of Protected Health Information (PHI). Covered Entities (CE's) and Business Associates (BA's), who are closely associated with PHI, and individuals whose PHI data are breached, are required to bring such data breaches to the notice of the authorities, whenever there is one. A breach notification is a mechanism that is aimed at ensuring that BA's and CE's meet requirements in the HITECH Act in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). To whom should the affected individuals and CE's and BA's complain? Whenever there is a breach of PHI by a CE or a BA, or if there is violation of the Privacy, Security, or Breach Notification Rules, the affected individual can complain to the Office for Civil Rights (OCR), which will initiate investigation into these complaints. Whenever a CE or a BA detects a breach, it can complain to the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS). In addition, the HIPAA breach notification rules have clear guidelines on how to report breaches in the following classifications: HIPAA's definition of a breach A breach of PHI is said to have taken place when any unpermitted use or disclosure that compromises the security of the data in the PHI takes place. Any such action, resulting in the breach of any kind of data contained in a PHI, big or small, is considered a breach, unless the CE or BA can explain that the data that got breached into was not serious enough, from its risk assessment point of view, to warrant immediate intervention. The new HIPAA breach notification rules The HHS embarked on a new HIPAA breach notification program, the HIPAA Privacy, Security, and Breach Notification Audit Program, with which it seeks to bring a few changes into the existing HIPAA breach notification rules. This new Audit Pr

Rationale for Clinical Trial Regulations Clinical trials, as we all know, are carried out to test the efficacy of a new drug or device being developed for a specific condition or disease. Clinical trials are experiments that have a high degree of risk if they are not properly implemented. For this reason, it is necessary for regulatory bodies to regulate clinical trials. The core rationale for regulating the various stages of clinical trials is that human subjects, who are part of the research, have to be protected. These clinical trial regulations are legislated at all stages: local, State, national and international. Clinical trial regulations are in force in different countries of the world. Common clinical trial regulations are also made globally by the International Conference on Harmonization (ICH), which has the mandate of setting out good practices for clinical trial regulations for trials done in global cooperation. These regulations cover the administrative, procedural and ethical aspects of clinical trials. Briefly, these are the areas in which there are clinical trial regulations for each of these aspects of clinical trials: Administrative: The administrative aspects of clinical trial regulations pertain to the way the clinical trials are run, and the way they are tracked and monitored throughout their lifecycle. A clinical trial is usually monitored by a sponsoring company or a Contract Research Organization (CRO), which the former hires at times for reasons of convenience and cost cutting. Clinical trial regulations in this area is obviously of importance because if something goes wrong at any administrative stage; these can be rectified. Procedural: Procedural aspects of clinical trial regulations relate to ways by which subjects are chosen for a clinical trial. Proper care has to be taken to ensure that the subjects are appropriate for the clinical study, are from the prescribed age, geographical, demographic, racial and gender-related cl

Workplace Safety Regulations : Workplace safety is a matter of grave importance to any organization. Ensuring the safety of workers is a primary goal of most countries, no matter which kind of political system or setup they have. This is because almost no workplace is free from some or another kind of hazard. These workplaces could be as varied as hospitals, construction sites, engineering plants or agriculture and many more. Governments the world over consider it their duty to provide a safe workplace. Workplace safety can concern any hazard that can happen to either the physical or emotional wellbeing of a worker. National and global workplace safety regulations : Workplace safety regulations are legally stipulated measures that governments require organizations in both the private and public sector to implement in order to ensure safety at the workplace. Almost all countries have their own set of workplace safety regulations. These regulations work in tandem with a few global management systems with the aim of enhancing safety standards at the workplace. A notable global organization that is at the forefront of legislating workplace safety regulations is the International Labor Organization (ILO). These ILO-mandated legislations are meant to supplement the national workplace safety regulations that most countries have. This is done in the belief that many a time, these individual legislations may not be sufficient in themselves. Workplace safety regulations in the US : Like most other countries, the US too has its own set of Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) standards. Owing their origins to the Richard Nixon era in late 1970; workplace safety regulations in the US concretized under what is collectively called the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). The major feature of OSHA is that apart from promulgating workplace safety regulations across nearly all conceivable sectors and types of industries; OSHA also has a provision for whistleblow

The emerging discipline of Hospitals Management Performance Assessments Over the past few years, Hospitals Management Performance Assessments have begun to gain acceptability and credence in healthcare circles. Hospitals Management Performance Assessments came into being as a result of a conscious effort by advanced countries, mainly European, with sufficient backing from the World Health Organization (WHO) to arrive at some sort of metrics to evaluate the critical functioning levels of hospitals. The topic of Hospitals Management Performance Assessments came to acquire proper shape and structure following the heavy reference the WHO made to this discipline at the WHO European Ministerial Conference on Health Systems of June 2008. The following year, it found resonance again, when it was the theme of the World Health Day. The evaluation of Hospitals Management Performance Assessments Hospitals Management Performance Assessments started to evolve primarily to provide healthcare professionals with a tool to diagnose the quality of performance of the hospitals and other healthcare settings they work in. It was felt, over time and experience, that when strict appraisals were being made in many areas of healthcare, a set of parameters to assess the level of efficiency of hospitals would go a long way in ensuring the implementation of enhanced processes, leading to better patient outcomes. Areas of concentration for Hospitals Management Performance Assessments The core disciplines in which Hospitals Management Performance Assessments sought to bring about measurable and verifiable improvements were: The PATH approach As a result of discussions and deliberations the WHO held with many countries, primarily European, a path for charting out the course of Hospitals Management Performance Assessments was concretized in the form of what the WHO called the PATH - the Performance Assessment Tool for Quality Improvement in Hospitals. A brief understanding of PATH PATH

Clinical Risk Management Lies at the Heart of Patient Safety : Clinical Risk Management is the process of identifying and mitigating risks in a healthcare setting. Risks are inherent in a clinical or healthcare practice, as they are in any other activity. But the field of healthcare has to be doubly wary of risk management because an adverse risk can cause irreparable loss if it leads to an event such as death. To a healthcare organization or practice, a bad event can harm the name beyond repair. How is risk identified? The first step to implementing a Clinical Risk Management is identifying the risks in the practice. This can be done in a number of ways: Why do healthcare providers need to implement a Clinical Risk Management strategy? Healthcare providers need to put in place a very sound Clinical Risk Management strategy for a number of reasons: Steps to putting a good Clinical Risk Management program in place A healthcare organization can put an effective Clinical Risk Management in place through a four-step process: Click Here for More Information: http://bit.ly/1OcHFXm

It is important to ensure food safety in hospitals Hospitals being what they are - where patients of almost all kinds visit or stay - are very potent sources of infection. Infection can arise from any part of the hospital. They can spread from patients to patients, from caregivers to patients, from patients to caregivers, from patients to support or administrative staff and vice versa, and so on. An often overlooked source of infection and contamination is the food that comes into hospitals. Food safety in hospitals is a very important element of hygiene First, an understanding of food safety in the context of hospitals is necessary. Food safety in hospitals is described as the scientific way by which food is prepared, handled and stored in hospital settings. Any food that is prepared in hospital kitchens are, like food prepared in other places such as canteens, hotels and restaurants and even homes, sourced from outside. This food comes from suppliers whose hygiene has to be ensured. Food hazards can come in many forms, including, but not limited to: Biological Chemical Physical Allergenic Hazards an Several other contributing factors It is in the process of procuring materials for food and preparing it in hospital kitchens that a major part of food safety in hospitals is compromised. There has to be a thorough mechanism to ensure that all these producers and suppliers follow regulatory requirements in ensuring that the food they produce and supply to hospitals is clean and safe. Literally thousands of patients get infected from over 250 kinds of bacteria, parasites and viruses when they consume food prepared in hospitals. Findings of a recent study It is pertinent to recall the findings of study done in May 2014 in Geneva, Switzerland. It carried out an examination of chicken supplied to and prepared in a hospital in this city. An astounding four fifths of these chickens were known to have been infected with E.coli, leading to its possible transmission to pati

Setting up a compliance program in healthcare: Organizations that set up a compliance program in healthcare should go by many voluntary regulations from the OIG, apart from those mandated by HIPAA. Setting up a compliance program in healthcare is about being compliant with standards. This entails having to be compliant with several standards, which cover a wide variety of areas. There are several voluntary and mandatory guidelines from the Office of the Inspector General (OIG), apart from standards from HIPAA. Setting up a compliance program in healthcare meeting HIPAA requirements is set out and mandated by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). Guidelines from the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) The series of compliance program guidance documents from the OIG are largely voluntary, and are meant for the different sections of the health care industry. These include Hospitals Nursing homes Third-party billers, and Durable medical equipment suppliers. These guidelines are issued with the intention of motivating healthcare units to develop and use their own internal controls aimed at helping them adhere to regulations, program requirements and statutes. The OIG issues documents, which act as guidelines for setting up a compliance program in healthcare by providing principles. These need to be adapted when healthcare organizations have to develop their own compliance program that is in tune with their best interests and needs. Another major aim is served in the implementation of these guidelines for setting up a compliance program in healthcare: They help healthcare units to understand the nature of fraud and other risks associated with abuse, when they are setting up a compliance program for their healthcare unit. HIPAA requirements Setting up a compliance program in healthcare while being compliant with HIPAA regulationsrequires a healthcare organization to put in place measures that ensure that health records must: Be confident