The Need and Importance of an Officer

Introduction
The Need And Importance Of An Officer

How can the healthcare industry promise the public that their patient data would be handled in the utmost care with regards to patient confidentiality and security of private information? Healthcare organizations needed a way to provide this promise. This promise came in the form of healthcare regulatory agencies such as the Joint Commission (JCAHO) or the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) based agencies. But the bigger question now is how would each individual healthcare organization enforce these rules and regulations set by external agencies, states, and federal laws? How would these healthcare organizations enforce their internal patient data privacy and confidentiality policies? By appointing a special qualified individual as an enforcer/officer of these laws, regulations, and rules, healthcare organizations were able to promise to the public that their patient data will remain in safe hands and will be handled with quality care in regards to privacy, security and confidentiality. Healthcare organizations assigned these overseeing roles to individuals known as a compliance or privacy officers. Sometimes they are also titled as a JCAHO/HIPAA/AHIMA Compliance Officers, based on which external agency they adhere to in terms of regulations (Carnegie Mellon University Compliance Office). For the sake of brevity, I will refer to the privacy or compliance officer as just the compliance officer.
What Is An Privacy Or Compliance Officer

Furthermore, the compliance officer is an appointed individual who superintends all processes related to the development, implementation, maintenance, and obedience to the healthcare organization’s policies and procedures. These policies and procedures cover the privacy of and access to patient health information in compliance with federal and state laws (“external” reporting) and the healthcare organization’s information privacy practices (“internal”...