Keeping up its tradition of encouraging employees to follow the highest of standards, Pennsylvania Psychiatric Institute (PPI) is participating in Corporate Compliance & Ethics Week.
This week began in 2005 as a way to help members of the Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics & Health Care Compliance Association (SCCE & HCCA) to increase awareness of compliance and ethics issues at their organizations. It has since grown to an annual event celebrated around the world.
Corporate Compliance & Ethics Week is an extension of PPI’s ongoing compliance and ethics program. Company-wide compliance and ethics education, held annually, allows our organization to roll-out new and updated compliance and ethics program policies and reinforce with employees their compliance and ethics obligations. Participation in Corporate Compliance & Ethics Week gives additional opportunity to shine a spotlight on the importance of compliance and ethics and boost compliance culture.
Elements of an Effective Compliance & Ethics Program:
- Standards of conduct, policies, and procedures
- To provide the best care possible, PPI has high standards for our employees. Ask your supervisor where you can find a copy of them to review.
- Compliance officer and committee
- Laurie Talbot is PPI’s Director of Compliance. Please email her at ltalbot@ppimhs.org with any compliance questions.
- Communication and education
- Create effective, ongoing training methods and establish open lines of communication.
- Internal monitoring and auditing
- PPI uses internal tools to evaluate program effectiveness and detect criminal conduct.
- Reporting and investigating
- We encourage employees to raise concerns and we have investigative procedures in place should an issue arise.
- Enforcement and discipline
- PPI is committed to the enforcement of all policies, procedures and standards of conduct. Disciplinary actions may be taken for any violations.
- Response and prevention
- In collaboration with our Ethics committee, our compliance department’s goal is to resolve identified problems promptly and add related issues to monitoring activities. If you believe you have seen a compliance or ethical violation, call (717) 782-4682, or you can go to PPI’s Intranet Home page – What’s New? and click on the link ” Ethical Concern Submission Form” to report your concern.
Do you know what should you do in these situations?
Situation 1: You happen to be surfing a social website and you come across a negative comment about your organization that you believe is false. You want to respond and set the record straight. What should you do?
Unless you are authorized to speak on behalf of your organization, you should not respond. However, you should note the item and report it to your organization’s Public Relations Department or Legal. They will decide how best to respond.
Situation 2: A coworker tells you she needs to leave work a few minutes early to catch her son’s high school game. She asks if you could punch out her timecard when you leave at the end of the shift. What should you do?
Be completely honest with her explaining not only are you uncomfortable with her request to falsify her time card and risk both of you getting fired, but if she needs to leave early she should do so with the supervisor’s knowledge and approval. It is never right to lie regardless of the circumstances.
Find out more at: corporatecompliance.org/CCandEweek.
If you would like to speak to someone about better managing your stress and anxiety, or to make an appointment, please call (717) 782-6493 for more information.