The HIPAA Security Rule isn't specific about the timing of training, but it includes awareness building, reminders, and specific topics that must be addressed. Education, training, and awareness building are critical to privacy and security compliance.
Discharge planning, which is integral to providing continuity of care, is a dynamic process. The steps of discharge planning sometimes occur in order, they sometimes overlap, and they sometimes move back and forth.
As hospitals get ready to start notifying patients about their status under the requirements of the NOTICE Act using the MOON form, many still have questions about the process and the form itself. The NOTICE Act requires hospitals to provide a verbal and written notice (using the MOON form) of outpatient status to any patient who has been in observation for more than 24 hours. The hospital must provide notice to the patient within 36 hours of the start of the service, or at the time of discharge or inpatient admission. “The notice must be provided no later than 36 hours after observation services are initiated or, if sooner, upon release,” according to CMS.
A recent JAMA study analyzed the proportion and cost of 30-day readmissions and found that sepsis accounts for a higher rate of unplanned readmissions than acute myocardial infarction (AMI), heart failure, pneumonia, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). CMS uses 30-day readmission rates as a measure of quality of care and pays particular attention to AMI, heart failure, pneumonia, and COPD readmissions because they are frequent and costly.
