HIPAA privacy and security training must be provided to all new employees, when job functions change, or when there has been a material change in policies or procedures, and while training can take many forms, conducting HIPAA privacy and security training online is often the best choice. The reasons why are outlined below.
Classroom-based Training Sessions are Not Practical
When a new person joins the workforce there are many new tasks and skills that need to be learned in order for them to be able to complete their work duties. To ensure those duties can be completed in a HIPAA-compliant way, it is essential for HIPAA training to be provided. In addition to learning about appropriate provisions of the HIPAA Rules, all employees must be taught cybersecurity best practices.
Since healthcare employees enter a busy working environment from the start, it can be difficult to find the time to fit in HIPAA and security awareness training. In an ideal world, providing a classroom training session on HIPAA for all new recruits would be the ideal choice; however, in practice this is problematic.
Employees will likely join an organization throughout the year to replace existing staff members who are retiring, change jobs or are terminated. Since HIPAA requires training to be provided within a reasonable period of time after an employee joins the workforce, delaying training until there are sufficient members of staff to fill a training course is not an option and running classroom training sessions for a handful of employees is not cost effective or practical. In addition to HIPAA training, security awareness training must also be provided to the workforce. That generally means at least two training sessions will be required so it will be necessary to find two gaps in the schedules of multiple employees.
Benefits of Providing HIPAA Privacy and Security Training Online
One of the easiest ways to solve all of these issues is to provide HIPAA privacy and security training online. Computer-based training courses are provided by many third-party companies, including ComplianceJunction. By using a third-party company, HIPAA-regulated entities do not need to develop training courses from scratch nor ensure their courses are updated following HIPAA Rule changes.
Computer-based training courses are often modular and include core modules that need to be provided to all workers, such as an introduction to HIPAA, why the legislation is important, reporting HIPAA violations, and the sanctions and penalties for noncompliance. The modular nature of the courses means modules can be selected for different categories of worker, allowing training courses to be tailored for each role in the organization. Each employee then completes their role-specific HIPAA privacy and security training online.
These tried and tested training courses are quick and easy to administer, and managers and department heads can track the progress of each employee. At the end of the training course, a HIPAA training certificate is provided that confirms each employee has successfully completed the course. The documentation can be stored in employee files and with other HIPAA documentation and can easily be produced to confirm staff training has been provided in the event of an audit or investigation.
Conducting HIPAA privacy and security training online has the added advantage of being easy to fit into busy workflows. ComplianceJunction training course modules generally take between 3 and 10 minutes per module and can be completed individually whenever employees have spare time in their working day, which is a much more efficient way of providing on-the-job training.
If you are interested in finding out more about HIPAA privacy and security training online and the training courses provided by ComplianceJunction, get in touch today or complete the form to the right to access our free HIPAA training course.
