We have a corporate compliance department headed by a corporate compliance officer, who is also an experienced health care attorney. The hospital's corporate compliance committee, which I chair, includes nine other senior officers who meet monthly to discuss regulatory changes and compliance initiatives. We have an internal audit department with a staff of six, who regularly and actively focus an increasing amount of their time on Medicare-related compliance issues. Northwestern employs several outside consultants to help us prepare for review by HCFA and other agencies. Besides the known expense of time and resources, burdensome regulations incur hidden costs - a prime example being the toll they take on employee morale.
People choose to work at hospitals because they want to help others.
The current regulatory environment buries good, dedicated employees in bureaucratic paperwork. In today's tight job market, we face employee exodus to jobs that involve less red tape and hold the potential for greater job satisfaction. The necessity to constantly train and educate new staff in the intricacies of these burdensome regulations is another hidden cost that hospitals must bear. Only a small percentage of these voluminous regulations contribute to our efforts to provide quality patient care. The rest simply drain resources away from that goal.