Professional Appearance Positively Represents Your Healthcare Practice

Do you have a dress code policy in your healthcare practice? You might be in the front office or a healthcare provider. You might wear uniforms, lab coats, or business clothes. Regardless of your interaction with clients, customers, suppliers, contractors, or volunteers, the appearance of employees at your business supports your business image brand.

Patients and their families have reasonable expectations that their healthcare providers and employees at the clinic present themselves in a professional manner both in demeanor and appearance.

Why have a healthcare practice dress code policy?

Dress code policies, procedures and training will help to ensure a professional and consistent appearance of employees while also positively representing and supporting your business brand.

A policy provides guidance in making choices about clothing and appearance, for all staff.
The professional appearance of your staff supports the image and positive reputation of the clinic.
Use of uniforms and name badges creates a greater level of security and recognition for staff and patients.

What are some dress code guidelines?

General Guidelines:

If you do not have direct patient contact (i.e., billing clerk, consulting pharmacist, receptionist) wearing uniforms is optional. If you choose not to wear a uniform or lab coat, consider these guidelines when choosing clothes at the office:

Name Badges:

Help to identify you to our patients and clients.
Are provided by the clinic to each employee.
These are to be worn at all times.
If you are not wearing a name badge, you may be denied entry into restricted areas of the clinic.

Shoes:

Closed toes and closed heels or heel straps.
No high heels or built-up soles such that it could endanger yourself or patients.
Non-slip footwear.

Hair:

Clean and neatly groomed.
Long hair should be tied back during patient treatment or when operating machinery.

Clothing:

Clean, neat and in good repair and allows for full performance of all duties.
T-shirts and tank tops are not permitted. Polo shirts or styled cotton tops with pockets are acceptable. Discrete, non-inflammatory images and logos are permitted.
Sweatshirts are not suitable in direct patient care areas.
Tops need to be long enough and high enough to provide adequate coverage of abdomen, back and chest.
Fragrances should be avoided.
Jewelry, tattoos and body piercings must be discrete and provide no risk to the wearer or patient.

If you have direct patient contact (i.e., physicians, MOA, nursing, physiotherapist):

Clothing must meet infection control standards for the benefit of patients and to you and your family. The type of work that you do may require additional considerations.

No artificial nails are permitted.

In the interest of health and safety of our patients and our employees, no artificial fingernails are permitted. Artificial nails have been demonstrated to interfere with effective hand washing hygiene and has contributed to healthcare acquired infections.

When we know better, we do better

Download the Practice Management Success Tip, ‘Dress Code Policy'.

Discuss with your team the importance of professional attire and overall appearance.

The free Practice Management Success Tip, Dress Code Policy, will help you

Discuss with your team the importance of professional attire and overall appearance.
Review the professional work standards expected of each staff member, regardless of their role.
Guide discussions with your team, get their feedback and input, customize a procedure that you can use right away in your practice.

Show Me The Dress Code Policy

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Have you ever said… “If only I had someone to ask!”

Each month, we discuss your questions about practice management, human resources issues, clinic management best practices, procedures, resources, practical privacy tips, and more in Practice Management Success membership.

In this Q&A, we're talking about:

How to Process an Access Request for Security Camera Images

A patient has requested access to the video security images at my clinic.

What do I do now?

I have received two inquiries from clients lately about disclosing images from surveillance cameras.

In one situation, there was a patient incident in the patient reception area. The patient requested access to the video footage.

In another situation, a patient was suspected of stealing cash from a staff members’ personal coat pocket. Charges were laid by the police, and the clinic manager was anticipating making the images available to the police if requested.

If you have a security camera in your healthcare practice, you need policies and procedures to control how the images will be used, how to advise your patients and staff that you use security cameras and how you will respond to an access request or security incident.

Here are my tips to help you to prepare your security camera policy.

Security Cameras To Provide Safety and Security

We often choose to implement surveillance cameras to provide safety and security for staff and patients. This is primarily intended to deter theft of equipment and records and to monitor for potentially wrongful and illegal activities by patients, visitors, or employees of the clinic.

Patients, staff, and visitors expect that their privacy and confidentiality will be respected and that the images will be used appropriately. As a custodian, you need a written policy and procedure to ensure good business practices, meet privacy legislation, and ensure that individuals have access to their own information.

Keep The Images for the Least Amount of Time Necessary

Remember that collecting and keeping the least amount of information necessary for the intended purpose is a good privacy practice.

If you have a security incident, you probably will be able to recognize it right away or within a few weeks of the event. Keep only the images that are needed to manage a security incident and delete the remaining images. Keeping all digital images longer than is necessary is not recommended.

Many security systems will over-write the images on a 15 or 30 day cycle.

What To Do If An Incident Occurs

If an incident occurs, the video should be reviewed immediately by the authorized custodian.

If you think that the images will be required in the future, copy the required video to a DVD or other memory device. Store the memory device at a secure, offsite location for at least a one (1) year period under the control of the custodian.

In the event that a patient requests access to their own images or if there is the potential for involvement of other people such as the police, insurance, or the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner (OIPC), to access the videos in an investigation of a (suspected) security and privacy breach, take the following steps.

Export the video images from the security system into a video file format and stored to a separate memory device (DVD, USB, etc.)
Transfer the video images to still images, if needed.
Review the images and ‘sever’ to remove or obscure the identities of other individuals in the images.

Access Requests

These recordings probably contain personal information as defined under the Personal Information Protection Act (Alberta) (PIPA).

The patient or client can request access to their own identifying information. Use your your current access and release of information policies to guide you to process this request.

I always prefer to have requests in writing so that I can be certain of the details of the request and can confirm the identity of the requester.

The attending custodian or business owner must authorize the release of the information.

Do you need a Security Camera Privacy Policy template?

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