Communicating a Culture of Compliance with Your Medical Staff

Communication, even in the most positive relationships, can be challenging at times. What are the best practices for communicating with physicians?

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As a compliance department, you likely have experience with using all different forms of communication for your message to effectively reach different types of people. Not only must you experiment with what works best with physicians at your organization, you will likely need to communicate in different terms and through multiple channels. Even within the medical staff, there will be all different types of learners and communicators.

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Another best practice is what we call the “train the trainer” model. For physicians especially, this can be an extremely effective way to disseminate messages throughout the medical staff. First, identify physicians that would make good leaders. Educate them, engage them, and ensure they will carry the most important compliance messages to other physicians. Trust them to talk to their peers and address issues of compliance, while of course giving them the proper tools to do so.

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We cannot emphasize enough how important setting the tone from the top of the organization is. If your C-suite doesn’t care about compliance, your physicians will not care about compliance. Culture can make or break an organization when it comes to compliance and legal issues. Work with your executive team to ensure that compliance, safety, and quality are among the most important goals of the organization.

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