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Since late April, anyone who has visited a doctor’s
office or picked up a prescription at a pharmacy has been
confronted with pages of information about privacy practices
and new forms to sign, all due to federal legislation called
the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (also
called HIPAA).
CLO joined the scores of entities that provide health care
or related services in complying with new rules related to
health-care information and protecting consumers’ confidentiality.
Sensitivity to matters of privacy is nothing new for CLO,
though.
Long before the arrival of HIPAA CLO had a longstanding practice
of providing training about privacy issues and requiring employees
to sign a confidentiality pledge.
“In this field we do need to talk about private things
in order to do our jobs, so we’ve always had to balance
the privacy rights of each person we serve with their right
to receive quality care,” said John Clayton, formerly
CLO’s advocacy and protection specialist, now an administrator
with another provider of developmental disability services
in the area.
“We spend hours talking about dignity, privacy, and
related topics, and this has been part of our new staff orientation
process for many years,” said Diane Bannerman Juracek,
Ph.D., CLO senior administrator.
Thus, from the perspective of direct-care staff, CLO’s
standards have not changed all that much since the HIPAA regulations
came on line.
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CLO’s greatest expectation regard-ing privacy is none
other than the Golden Rule. Twice each month, when employee
training sessions are held, CLO trainers caution about the
significance of small, but important things like discussing
private things in private places, using an appropriately quiet
voice tone when talking about sensitive matters, and more.
Always put yourself in the shoes of the person you’re
serving, staff members are reminded.
While complying with new rules regarding record-keeping and
sharing information may seem a little burden-some at times,
CLO has advocated for the underlying principle for 25 years.
“Our philosophy has always been that dignity is perhaps
the most impor-tant outcome we can achieve for a person we
serve,” Bannerman Juracek said.
Said Clayton, “Privacy and dignity go hand in hand.
All things follow from dignity, when you get right down to
it.”
If you’d like a copy of CLO’s Notice of Privacy
Practices, or if you have questions about any of CLO’s
policies or practices related to privacy, call CLO at 785-865-5520
or 913-341-9316 and ask for Lewis
Walton, Privacy Officer.
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