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Tip: Follow these tips for training volunteers and temporary employees

HIPAA Weekly Advisor, October 10, 2002

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The temporary employee who told police she took medical records home "to organize them" before accidentally dropping them on a street probably needed more privacy training. Volunteers and temporary employees could be your facility's weakest link if you don't train them properly.

"Volunteers have less at stake than regular employees do," says Kelley L. Meeusen, RHIT, compliance coordinator and privacy officer at Harrison Hospital in Bremerton, WA. "The culture change has to be emphasized a lot more. I try to bring it home from an ethical standpoint. I'm finding that when I do, people want more information. We can't tell volunteers that if they don't do things right we'll fire them. Most of them are elderly or high school kids and could probably care less."

Make HIPAA privacy training more effective by emphasizing that the protections also apply to employees.

"I stress that HIPAA isn't just something for our patients. It's something for every citizen of the country," says Meeusen. "When I do something to protect patients' privacy, I'm creating an environment that will protect my own privacy, because I will eventually be a patient, too."

You must train all members of the work force-including volunteers and temps-before April 14, 2003. "To someone walking off the street, a volunteer is a representative of the hospital and should be trained the same way a regular employee is trained," says Greg Hollingshead, MBA, director of learning services at Lee Memorial Health System in Cape Coral, FL.

Go to http://www.himinfo.com/news/tip/ to read more on effectively and efficiently training volunteers and other temporary employees.

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