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Business are Victims of Economic Crime and Fraud

Posted on March 14, 2016 by Jean Eaton in Blog

March is Fraud Prevention Month

40% of Canadian organizations reported that they were victims of fraud in the last two years. This includes asset mis-appropriation, procurement, and cyber fraud, as reported on CanadaAM on March 9, 2016 interview with Lori-Ann Beausoleil, PWC Canada.

Ophthalmology Business article, ‘6 Ways To Curb Employee Theft‘  includes tips that physicians and administrators can do to curb the risk of theft.

  1. Vet your employees
  2. Track inventory
  3. Let employees know that you are concerned about fraud
  4. Separate financial-related duties
  5. Out of sight, out of mind
  6. Use electronic health records (EHR) to your advantage

Read ‘6 Ways To Curb Employee Theft‘ to see all the suggestions by Jean L. Eaton, Steve Dawson, Jodie Boxe in this article by Vanessa Caceres.

For more suggestions on how to manage risks especially when your staff work alone, see my interview with Dave Rodwell, ‘Do Your Staff Work Alone?'

There are many things that you can do to prevent fraud in your healthcare practice. Being aware of the risk is your first step.

corporate security, Dave Rodwell, fraud prevention, health care, healthcare, incident plan, Jodie Boxe, ophthalmology, Practice Management Mentor, Practice Management Nugget, risk management, security, Steve Dawson, Vanessa Caceres, work alone

Do your staff work alone?

Posted on May 9, 2015 by Jean Eaton in Blog

In our Practice Management Nugget series, on July 31, 2014,we spoke with Dave Rodwell of D.E. Rodwell Investigative Services Ltd. on “Corporate Security – A Must for Any Organization”. Here are a few security tips for your healthcare practice.

What is the most devastating thing that could happen to your business?

Your employee is physically assaulted on the job by a stranger. A car drives through your office window. A shouting match between a patient and your employee. Internal theft of your cash box. Identifying those devastating events is the first step to prevent those events and to prepare your incident plan. Then,

  1. Document the plan
  2. Share the plan with your staff
  3. Practice the plan

This will help your organization to prevent incidents that could impact your business.

“Cash is a tempting target for an employee who is having financial difficulties.” Dave Rodwell

We want to be able to trust the people that we work with. We try to hire good people, but circumstances change and a plain unlocked cash box that everyone uses is a tempting target. You should have written procedures in place to limit the amount of cash in the office and controls in place to make the cash less tempting to steal.

20_60_20_Theory_Information_Managers20% of the general population will never steal under any circumstance

60% of the general population may be tempted to steal if there is an opportunity and that there is a reasonable chance that they won’t get caught

20% of the general population will steal whenever they have an opportunity

Incident management and internal investigation

Every organization should have a crisis response checklist including a plan to conduct an internal investigation of an incident. This includes creating an objective report that can be presented to senior management, who makes a decision on how to respond to the incident. The investigator – internal or external to the business – needs to be perceived as objective, fair, and thorough so that the decision made by senior management is respected.

Do your staff work alone?

You might have an employee who works alone for part of their shift in your practice. Maybe employees work at the same time but at opposite ends of the office.

 

If an employee cannot be seen or heard by co-workers who can offer assistance, they are considered ‘working alone’.

The employer is required to conduct a hazard assessment and must establish an effective strategy to reduce the risk of harm. Most provinces have legislation that requires a business to conduct a ‘work alone assessment’. The assessment includes:

  • Identify individuals who work alone
  • Identify risks to individuals work alone
  • Identify reasonable risk mitigation strategies to prevent harm to employees
  • Provide training to the employee that safeguards the employee (make sure you document the training!)

We want to keep our employees safe from harm and are willing to take reasonable steps to protect and train the employees. If you don’t take steps to meet work alone legislative requirements and an incident occurs it could impact your insurance coverage. An investigation into the incident could find that your business ‘operated contrary to the laws of the land’ and your insurance coverage may be null and void.

Working Alone Safely handbook is available from Government of Alberta to help businesses implement work alone strategies.

Employers and employees have a responsibility to ensure a safe workplace. Get started on your incident plan by taking a risk survey. Then select one or two risk areas that you can quickly and easily prevent and develop your incident response plan.

The replay of this interview is now available as a member benefit. Try out a Trial Membership to Information Managers Network to access this Practice Management Nugget interview and other webinar replays and resources. And if you’re already a member, just log-in and enjoy!

Trial Membership Information Managers Network Information Managers Network Login corporate security, Dave Rodwell, incident plan, Practice Management Mentor, Practice Management Nugget, risk management, security, work alone

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