Compliance officers have to make the link clear and generally raise the visibility of compliance and ethics in their organizations, says James Londis, compliance officer at Kettering Medical Center in Ohio and a PhD in philosophy.
Doctors care deeply about patients.
Use the example of a very recent case in which a cardiologist, along with a pharmacist, lost a civil lawsuit and was held liable for a patient's death because the cardiologist's handwriting was illegible and consequently the pharmacist gave the patient the wrong medicine. A compliance program should be an integrity program. But the ethical dimension is largely invisible. Preserving the integrity of patient care is the underlying reason for most laws and regulations. Every other month, Kettering Medical Center conducts an ethics forum, which usually offers CE or CME credit, to discuss various topics, including case studies or issues selected by a small committee charged with organizing the forums.