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Refocus your physician training efforts

HIPAA Training Advisor, March 22, 2007

It isn't news that many physicians are busy and uninterested in HIPAA-which can make training them on privacy and security a real headache. However, approaching physicians with new strategies can improve attendance at training sessions and capture their attention.

"Physicians are a really big challenge," says Judy Thompson, PhD, director of quality assurance, risk management, and human resources at Cedar River Clinics in Seattle. "There's the whole mindset that HIPAA is a stupid rule and they shouldn't have to follow a stupid rule." Many physicians simply see HIPAA as a distraction from their real business of patient care.

"They already think they're doing a good job," says Kelly Meeusen, RHIT, HIM distance learning instructor for Tacoma (WA) Community College. "In their minds, they've always protected patient privacy and they're not interested in the specific rules."

The first step in a physician training program is to make sure that physicians actually attend the training sessions. A combination of carrots and sticks seems to work best.

Build physician-trainer relationships
"The first step for any organization is [to build] a good relationship between whoever's managing the organization's compliance and the medical staff," Meeusen says.

"Then [the physicians are] going to be a lot more receptive to what you're teaching them." So ask physicians what kind of training works best for them and then deliver it. Your physicians may prefer

  • morning or evening sessions
  • online programs
  • training that is closely tailored to their needs

Tailoring your presentation format to physicians' needs, instead of dictating how it has to be done, can go a long way toward building a good working relationship, Meeusen says. Thompson added a HIPAA training requirement to the medical staff bylaws, so that physicians must complete HIPAA training to attain privileges at the facility. Putting the requirement in the bylaws also gives it teeth, he says.

"Tie it to medical staff bylaws. That's what makes it binding because the organization can take legal action," says Thompson. This makes the training more important to physicians, she adds.

She also recommends building HIPAA training into your quality assurance programs, so that you can regularly review and monitor physicians' performance regarding HIPAA compliance. You can also include the training in a continuing education program or as part of a broader risk management training that looks at a wide range of compliance issues.

It's also important to relate HIPAA training back to patient care, so that physicians understand the need for it, Meeusen says. For example, point out that if patients are afraid that physicians won't protect their confidentiality, they may be reluctant to seek treatment or be candid about health problems. Breaches of confidentiality or security can also lead to larger security concerns (e.g., the possibility of newborn abductions).

"A lot of places try scare tactics, but that doesn't work-physicians don't care," says Meeusen. "But if you tell them they may lose patients over this or that their patients may not be forthright with them, that's something they understand. Physicians hate to hear that they need to do something because it's the rule. They're much more receptive to hearing that this is the right thing to do and here's why it's the right thing to do."

The best way to make this pitch is to find a physician peer-not someone in administration, but someone in the trenches-to make the case for you, Thompson says. Physicians are far more receptive to training from other physicians than they are to being lectured by other staff.

Tailor training to physician needs
Another way to make the training more palatable for physicians is to offer continuing medical education (CME) credits, Thompson says. This may require you to work with state regulators to allow CME credit for HIPAA training, and it may cost you money. But if physicians can take care of some of their CME requirements by taking a HIPAA class, they're a lot more likely to cooperate, she says.

Another incentive is to tailor training to physician needs, says Meeusen. Because physicians in private practice have to worry about being HIPAA-compliant in their own offices, consider offering HIPAA training that covers not only what your facility requires, but also helps physicians determine what they need to do for their own businesses.

You might also want to take your HIPAA training on the road, offering it to both physicians and their staffs. This can help improve compliance and build your working relationships with physician offices.

"Compliance programs [sometimes] make the mistake of focusing solely on the hospital's needs," says Meeusen. "But if you help physicians with their compliance issues outside the hospital . . . you're bringing them value." For example, you could solicit HIPAA-related questions from your medical staff and then attend medical staff meetings to offer a ten-minute answer session, Meeusen says.

You'll capture the physicians' attention because your presentation will focus on their questions about HIPAA. If you make this a regular habit, all of those bitesized bits of training may add up to far more time than just calling physicians in for a one-hour session once per year, adds Meeusen.

Follow three tips to training success
Meeusen and Thompson offer the following tips to successful physician training:

  1. Provide food. Take your cue from the pharmaceutical industry and offer free food to lure physicians to sit through your training program.
  2. Be flexible/offer options. Offer breakfast or evening sessions, or provide an online program that physicians can work on during their lunch break.
  3. Keep it short. Don't waste physicians' time and they'll be more likely to cooperate. You can always supplement a short training session with written materials that physicians can read through at their leisure.

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