Question
Do compliance issues apply to the schools?
Answer
Absolutely. Your school will actually have their own code of conduct. When dealing with school-based therapies, you have HIPAA practices that you have to follow as a part of your compliance program. But every organization needs to have some sort of a code of conduct that says these are the ethical practices that you must follow. Some of them are more detailed than others. It will give you those practices depending on the services that you provide, but it is not just that people get hired into the facility and do whatever they want and say whatever they want and practice however they wish. The organization must have rules that have to be followed. So your school system, whether it is the whole school or a city-wide system, needs to have an ethical conduct for the practices.
HIPAA is very important in the schools so that protected health information of the services you're providing is not just getting out to any teacher, any student, another family member or another child. That is all part of your compliance program.
This Ask the Expert was taken from the course entitled: Compliance: More Than Just Following The Rules by Rex Crosby.
Visit the SpeechPathology.com eLearning Library to view all of our live, recorded, and text-based courses on a variety of topics.
Rex A. Crosby, OTR, has many years of experience as an Occupational Therapist in a variety of settings including Inpatient Rehab, Acute Care and Outpatient Neuro and Pediatric Rehabilitation. Rex also has extensive SNF experience as a clinical OT and Therapy Program Manager.
