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Lee Memorial calls on a hippie named Chip for some help with training

HIPAA Weekly Advisor, August 1, 2003

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With your staff members' busy work schedules, it's not always easy for them to take time out for training. But it is critical that you reach every employee when conducting HIPAA privacy training, says Mary Klem, communications consultant at Lee Memorial Health System in Cape Coral, FL. Developing an informative and fun training program is a great way to do so. "We're trying to take the subject seriously, but make it appealing and have some fun with it," she says.

In order to catch the attention of staff members and keep them interested, Lee Memorial centered its training program on a hippie named Chip. "Chip is a character [we made up as] part of our 'Hip on HIPAA' campaign," says Klem. "Chip is a revolutionary hippie who's got the groove on HIPAA."

Chip has taken on HIPAA as his new cause, she says. "He first thought HIPAA was just a cool name for a rock-and-roll band, but now he realizes how groovy protecting the privacy of the people is." And he's here to spread the word, along with another hippie named Sunshine, says Klem.

The health system launched the campaign in May 2002 and has used Chip in various ways to conduct both general-awareness and follow-up privacy training. "It was one piece of an overall communications plan," she says. "[This part is] focused internally. It's fine to have fun with it with employees, but our external communications are very professional."

While working on a training plan, Klem decided to create a comic strip. "I was getting some feedback from employees that they really don't have time to read [lengthy documents]," she says. "But everyone has time to read a comic strip."

Klem hired an artist to create four panels for a cartoon, to be featured in Lee Memorial's monthly employee newsletter and on its intranet site. "We commissioned him to create the illustrations, and I write the cartoons," she says. "So we own the intellectual property of the cartoons."

Like many health care systems, Lee Memorial has a limited budget, so it was important that the project not cost much, says Klem. She has worked for more than a year creating a new comic strip every month, working with a total of eight interchangeable panels. "My original plan was to use the four panels, but I had [the artist] create four more," she says. "A lot of people don't even notice that there are just eight panels, because I mix and match, so there are never the same four panels. It really helped keep the cost down."

The cartoons cost a few hundred dollars, says Klem. "We found it amazingly inexpensive. We have a local artist that does a lot of work for us, such as discovery charts, so we didn't have to spend very much."

Klem first used the cartoon to introduce staff to the fact that HIPAA was coming and the compliance date was April 14, 2003. "But the cartoon is so popular, the health system plans to continue using it as an ongoing communication tool for the privacy rule," she says. And she may add another four panels this year.

But it's not just about fun, says Klem. "It's intended to educate our employees on how to apply the privacy rule requirements. And the deadline is not when everything ends," she says. "This is an ongoing thing."

Go to http://www.himinfo.com/news/feature.cfm?content_id=34490 to read more.

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