Avoiding legal trouble in your practice
When you’re caring for your patients and running your practice from day to day, legal protection may not be at the front of your mind, but there are steps you can take to protect yourself and your practice from litigation.
Atlanta-When you’re caring for your patients and running your practice from day to day, legal protection may not be at the front of your mind, but there are steps you can take to protect yourself and your practice from litigation.
Shauna Harrington, certified senior professional in human resources (SPHR) with VSP, shared her advice for managing the human resources aspect of a practice during a special session at SECO, while Carl Spear, OD, FAAO, shared his advice for understanding the new world of medical billing and tips for avoiding an audit.
HR: Set the expectations
Harrington’s first piece of advice is to have an employee handbook, no matter the size of your practice. The handbook will set expectations and define your practice policies.
Once you have those policies in place, regularly ask yourself:
• Are those policies being administered fairly?
• Are procedures followed consistently?
• Are you practicing what you preach?
Related:
Discrimination
Harrington explained that a protected class is a group of individuals who are protected from discrimination by federal or state law-religious groups, women, those with disabilities, LGBT, various age groups, etc.
“Almost everyone in your practice is likely part of a protected class,” she says.
That is something you need to keep in mind in order to avoid finding yourself accused of discrimination. Harrington also says you need to make a point of treating everyone on your staff fairly and equally.
In order to avoid being accused of discrimination, Harrington offered what she described as 40 hours of legal training in 30 seconds-when interacting with your employees (including prospective employees), ask yourself two questions:
1. Is it job related?
2. Are you asking a special person a special question?
When hiring, Harrington says be clear about the occupational qualifications in the job description. There may be qualifications for the job that would reasonably eliminate someone from consideration.
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