BY: DAVID WARREN, PhD
Dr. Warren is Web editor, Catholic Health Association, St. Louis.
For several years, the general counsels of Catholic healthcare systems have met semiannually to share best practices and to work together on challenges confronting the ministry. In late 1997 the counsels initiated a similar group for the newly emerging area of corporate compliance.
The first Catholic health systems Corporate Compliance Officers Group meeting took place in early 1998. Since then, group meetings — underwritten in part by CHA — have been held twice a year in the central United States; systems rotate the duty of hosting a meeting and coordinating its agenda.
The Corporate Compliance Officers Group has found what other groups have realized from similar gatherings: Sharing makes you better off. For example, the more than 25 members of the group, representing over 200 Catholic hospitals and other healthcare facilities, now have an embarrassment of riches (at least, literally, on paper) in their pooled resource of more than two dozen best practices documents. Of course, as a pile of papers the documents have built-in limitations for managing and distributing the collection. That's probably why the group's choice for working with their treasure trove of expertise was the "no-brainer" of the late 20th century: Put it on the Web — in this case, add it to the Corporate Compliance and Organizational Integrity resource already hosted by CHAusa.
The Obvious First Choice
With convenience for frequent updates and flexibility for not only downloading files in a variety of formats but also for communicating news, disseminating surveys, and linking members of the ministry, the Web-based system is the obvious first choice to store, retrieve, and distribute the group's document collection. If the group had to work with the documents without the Web space provided through CHAusa, it would be clumsy at best and most likely difficult. In fact, as part of the resources offered through CHAusa, the corporate compliance document collection is of greater value to the ministry than if it had existed only on paper or even on CD-ROM.
But it's not just a matter of CHAusa enabling the Corporate Compliance Officers Group to solve a document management problem. Group members will also use CHAusa to share drafts and contribute even more documents, better enabling compliance officers to transfer knowledge and to share model policies. Bulletin board access through the CHAusa Member-to-Member conference will enable the group to spend less but communicate more. And all these enhanced tools and resources for corporate compliance form just one part of the Mission Services channel on CHAusa.
All Benefit
The Corporate Compliance Officers Group donation of resources to CHAusa is in the group's self-interest — yet also in the "self-interest" of CHAusa and other members of the ministry. Who is sharing? Who is benefiting? All. In CHA's Web space, every member of the ministry, including CHA, both makes a donation and receives a benefit. That multiplicity is an essential aspect of Web space, a place for a wide variety of uses and for developing and enhancing reciprocal relationships among the members of the ministry.
Any Catholic hospital or health system compliance officer, or staff person performing compliance duties, is welcome to join the Corporate Compliance Officers Group. To have your name, address, phone number, and e-mail address added to the group membership list, contact Don Koenig, corporate director, Corporate Responsibility Program, Catholic Healthcare Partners, at 513-639-2833.
David Warren welcomes your feedback at 314-253-3464.
Copyright © 1999 by the Catholic Health Association of the United States
For reprint permission, contact Betty Crosby or call (314) 253-3477.