COVER STORY Sample Policy
Pam Hooper, owner of Consultants In Healthcare in Little Rock, Arkansas, manages four ASCs in central Arkansas: The Surgical Pavilion LLC, Springhill Surgery Center LLC, OrthoArkansas Surgery Center LLC and Endoscopy Center of Arkansas LLC. Below is the personal electronic devices policy that she enforces in all four centers.
Personal Electronic Devices The use of personal electronic devices such as cellular telephones, laptops, iPods, MP3 players, audio recorders, etc., will not be allowed in clinical areas by staff, patients, family members or visitors. Signs are placed at the entrance to clinical areas. Employees may not transfer or post any patient information, including protected health information, sensitive business information or confidential employee information via any personal electronic device.
1. Use of personal cell phones to make or receive telephone calls or to send and receive text messages will be limited to break and meal times in non- clinical areas only. Conversations should not be so loud as to be distracting to other staff or physicians.
2. Cell phones may never be used to transmit protected health information, whether by text message, video or verbally. Employees who violate this policy are subject to immediate termination.
3. Use of cell phones to display obscene or sexually prohibited text messages or photographs is prohibited. Employees engaging in such behavior will be subject to termination.
4. Photographs of patients or employees will not be taken without their consent.
5. Employees should report any individuals seen taking photographs to their supervisor for investigation.
6. Personal laptops should not be used at work except during a break period or meal times in a non-clinical area. Employees may not transfer or post protected health information, sensitive business information or confidential employee information via any personal electronic device or on any social networking site such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Instagram or any other similar web site or blog.
7. Employees should be discreet in posting images or information in relation to themselves, their workplace, patients, coworkers or management that could result in a disruptive work environment or impair the employee’s ability to perform his or her duties.
8. Personal telephone calls using center telephones should be limited in duration and number of calls.
Employees violating any of the above policies will be subject to disciplinary action according to the progressive disciplinary action.
9. Patients, families and/or accompanying adults/children are allowed personal electronic devices in the waiting room only. These devices must be disabled when entering the clinical area. If the patient is permitted access to these devices in preop, the circulator is responsible for securing them with the family and/or accompanying adult or visually verifying the device has been disabled prior to being placed in the patient’s belongings bag.
18 ASC FOCUS OCTOBER 2015
policies,” Stinchcomb says. “They used to be aimed only at staff. They are now inclusive of patients and the fact that a phone should be considered a ‘belonging’ and left at home or with their accompanying adult during the case, along with their other valuables.”
Consultants In Healthcare has a
“Personal Electronic Devices” policy (see sidebar) that applies to all patients, families and staff in all of the facilities it manages, Hooper says. “The biggest motivation for developing this policy was Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) compliance,” she says. “We allow electronic devices in all non-clinical areas, such as the waiting room, dressing rooms and lounges. However, once the patient is brought back to preop, they are asked to turn off these devices or give them to the person who has accompanied them. We have found that when patients are distracted with their cell phones or have them go off during the preparation or interview process, it is very disruptive to our staff and physicians.” The vast majority of patients in
the ASCs that Consultants In Health- care manages come accompanied by a responsible adult. “We emphasize the importance of this during our preop interview, in our brochures and on our web site,” Hooper says. “If the accompanying person is not available during the preop process, we lock the patient’s device away or require them to turn it off in the presence of the cir- culator, immediately prior to taking them back to surgery.” The ASCs that Hooper manages
also have signs in all clinical areas that say electronic devices are not allowed. “It gets difficult when patients have to wait for a long time in the preop area,” she says. “We have to police that.” Staff members in the ASCs that Hooper manages are allowed to carry their phones but are allowed to use
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