Legal Handbook Outline Paper
Instructions:-
For the final Portfolio Project you will submit an academic written paper developing an organization’s employee legal handbook that could be utilized during new employee orientation.
This paper will include:
- An APA title page
- A description of the organization you developed
- A listing of all employee professions or disciplines
- A list of the topics developed in the Module 5 milestone
- A paragraph or two defining and discussing the significance of each specific topic and how it applies to the new employee entering your healthcare organization
- A list of twelve multiple choice questions, one for each of the twelve topics from the Module 5 milestone, that could be used as a post-test following the new employee orientation to the legal handbook
Topics: legal principles, rights, credentialing/scope of practice, legal employment qualifications (I-9, EEOC, etc.), HIPAA (confidentiality, privacy, security), consent, legal representation (POA, Guardian, etc.), abuse reporting, organizational regulations (staffing, etc.), end of life, federal/state regulations and future implications in healthcare law.
- A reference page(s) formatted in APA and utilizing the sources you identified in the Module 6 milestone
- A minimum of four academic sources.
Paper Requirements:
- Eight to ten pages in length, not including the title or reference page
- APA-level headings
- Follow CSU-Global Guide to Writing and APA Requirements
Solution
Legal Handbook Outline Paper
Welcome to Visionary Health Care!
Visionary Health Care was established in 2016 with an objective of beacon of quality medical service provision for long term care. This is a long-term health care facility with a 200-bed capacity located on a 70-acre piece of land in Phoenix, Arizona in the United States of America. This health care institution is accredited by the Joint Commission and is certified to benefit from reimbursements allocated by Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (Arizona Department of Health Services). We value ourselves in providing the best, friendly and conducive working environment to our workers and reliable and compassionate medical care to our customers.
LISTINGS OF ALL EMPLOYEES PROFFESSIONS IN VISIONARY HEALTH CARE
20 Public or community health officers
3 Dentists
5 Surgeons
8 PHSICIANS
5 Pharmacists
16 Nurses
4 Laboratory technicians
40 Social workers
6 Optometrists
3 Radiographers
12 Paramedics
8 Medical laboratory scientists
12 Physical therapists
10 Midwives
8 Surgical technologists
4 Dietitians
3 Audiologists
12 Therapists
8 Physician assistants
4 Optometrists
14 Clinical officers
10 Surgeon’s assistants
4 Respiratory therapists
6 Occupational therapists
4 Speech pathologists
4 Phlebotomists
From Module 5 milestone, some topics were developed. These topics play a significant role when it comes to the formulation of employee handbook where they act as guidelines. These topics are:
- Legal principles
- Rights
- Credentialing or scope of practice
- Legal employment qualification
- HIPPA (confidentiality, privacy, security)
- Consent
- Legal representation like through a guardian.
- Abuse reporting
- Organizational regulations like staffing.
- End of life.
- Federal or state regulations
- Future implications in healthcare law.
Legal principles refer to a set of generally accepted behavior of human beings as they interact with each other. All staff members are required to carry themselves with moderation, respect and tolerance. This principle is specifically aimed at achieving a conducive working environment for every one as this will improve their productivity hence a general improvement in the operations of the institution.
Rights are the various privileges that the workers should benefit from. In this set up, the workers have a right to fair treatment, right to assembly and right to life among others. It is for this reason that a good number of religious holidays are observed.
Confidentiality. This refers to information that is considered to be very private and should never be disclosed to any unauthorized person. It includes information’s like the personal health information of the patient, which may include conditions like their HIV/AIDS status.
Legal employment qualifications define the minimum level of education and any other relevant professional training concerning this field. This topic digs deeper by highlighting some of the verified accreditations body and the standards set before any health worker trained outside the USA is employed as a professional.
HIPPA (confidentiality, privacy and security). The privacy of the customer is paramount. Every employer should strive to make the privacy of the patient as secret as possible. Workers should also not disclose password and logins to unauthorized people.
Consent. This is a binging agreement signed by the worker after reading and understands the work contract and the employee handbook. It is used in order to make the relationship formal and this helps in solving possible future eventualities. The worker should only sign it after a thorough evaluation of the terms and conditions of work.
Legal representation. In many cases, the guardian who is in charge of the patient becomes the ultimate representative. The person in direct charge, control or supervision of the patient will take all the legal representation duties.
Abuse reporting. It is the expectation of every individual to have memorable moments at work place. Every worker has the right for equal treatment, without any form of harassment and mistreatment. Every member of the staff is supposed to treat each other with utmost respect and incase of any mistreatment, they should report immediately to the relevant authorities for actions to be taken.
Organizational regulations provide the new employee with a clue about what to expect as a worker of this institution. This makes them to prepare themselves mentally so as to deal with the likely changes accordingly. This topic basically explains how the organization operates and includes factors like staffing and promotion.
End of life. This topic provides the recommended process to be followed when one party has to terminate the contract. This provides a win-win situation to both the employers and employees. A proper notification will give the employer adequate time to recruit a replacement while the employee will have a good time to make clearance and maybe bid farewell to his immediate workmates.
Federal or state regulations. Every institution or organization is governed by a set of rules and principles. Some of the laws directly relating to this field are the occupational health and safety acts. Both the employers and employees should be law abiding.
Future implications in healthcare law. The set of acceptable principles governing various operations in a given country are very dynamic. The institution and all its workers are expected to be flexible and adopt any amendments.
MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS
The new employees are supposed to mark by crossing the most appropriate answer.
- A legal principle serves as a work contract (TRUE OF FALSE/I DON’T KNOW).
- All employees are required by the law governing the operations of this institution to share confidential information about the patients with colleagues (TRUE/FALSE/I DON’T KNOW).
- Job seekers from other parts of the world have to be certified before they are eligible to work in USA (TRUE/FALSE/I DON’T KNOW).
- Workers should not disclose the personal health information of the customers (YES/NO/I DON’T KNOW).
- Failure to append signatures and names will render the agreement null and void (TRUE/FALSE/I IS NOT SURE).
- Any arising dispute within the institution should be directly channeled to the jury (YES/NO/I AM NOT SURE).
- American citizens are given the first priority when it comes to recruitment for jobs (TRUE/FALSE/I DON’T KNOW).
- Workers are supposed to be very flexible and adjust to any change in the work schedule (TRUE/FALSE/I DON’T KNOW).
- The worker has no right whatsoever to terminate the contract of work. It is supposed to be a lifetime (TRUE/FALSE/I DON’T KNOW).
- It is the responsibility of every worker to maintain a safe condition of their working place as required by OSHA (TRUE/FALSE/I DON’T KNOW).
- This institution will strictly adhere to the current laws and will not incorporate any amendments or new laws in future (YES/NO/I DON’T KNOW).
EMPLOYEE HANDBOOK FOR VISIONARY HEALTH CARE
Legal Principles
This handbook is not a contract of work. We are governed by the existing state or federal laws and committed to adapt to any amendment in future.
Confidentiality
PURPOSE
To define and identify any kind of information that is deemed to be confidential and possibly come up with a recommendation on how this information should be shared among the workers and other shareholders.
POLICY
All employees should not at any point disclose any type of confidential information to any unauthorized person. All employees must sign this Hospital’s Confidentiality and Intellectual Property Assignment agreements.
DEFINITIONS
Confidentiality refers to a state of indicating high standards of confidence or intimacy information should not be shared as it can lead to destruction of people’s profile, affect self-esteem of people in question and their security. It is a legal requirement of this Hospital to protect the customer’s and workers confidential information and therefore all of our employees and contractors must strictly adhere to this. This confidential information does not exclude the pays lip of other workers, their personal records and information like contact address, passport of national identity card numbers and information about their financial accounts, computer systems logins(passwords)
Legal Employment Qualifications
Any foreign health care worker can only be admitted to USA after presentation of USCIS-approved certificates in order to verify that the worker has obtained the minimum requirements as required by the USA standards and regulations (Health Care Worker Certification). It verifies the training, English language command and licensure. Nurses, physical therapists, occupational therapists, clinical laboratory scientists, physicians, assistants and medical technologists must all get this certificate before they are integrated into the workforce. This certificate must be presented by the health care worker whenever they wish to change, extends or adjust their status and also when they are seeking admission into any health care facility in USA. For any graduate from a USA-based institution, bodies like The National Board for Certification in Occupational Therapy (NBCOT) is mandated the responsibility of issuing certificates to physical therapists.
HIPPA Privacy Rule
The hospital management and all the workers are supposed to protect the medical records of the customers or patients and all their personal health information (PHI). This rule specifically targets health workers charged with the responsibilities of conducting electronic transactions, planning of health care and those that clears the houses. Our hospital works in close conformity with all set rules and regulations governing this industry since these laws provide a limelight on how and why different situations like handling of confidential information and workers right. The hospital is allowed by laws to either use some disclosures with and or without seeking permission. According to the existing laws, the management is allowed to access, use or disclose confidential information for treatment, payment, operations of the health care, for conducting public health activities and health oversight, for conducting research, to support special government functions and for relating decent without seeking any permission from the concerned person. However, we are not allowed to use and disclosure any personal health information without authorization in the following situations: For obtaining information on substance abuse, HIV and AIDS information and if the disclosure involves marketing purposes. The hospital can also legally disclose some health information to families and friends any information relating to patient’s health, payment, death and general condition if the customer fails to object after being served with little information (Arizona State Hospital).
Consent
I hereby acknowledge that I have been served with a blank copy of Visionary Health Care Employee Handbook. I understand that it is my duty to go through and bear by all the policies and procedures contained in it and all other Policies and Procedure of the Hospital. I am aware that this handbook is meant to inform me about the hospital’s Policies and Procedures and that it is not an employment contract. I am fully aware that the hospital has all the rights to amend any provision found in this Handbook at any time and I will be expected to abide by such kind of amendments. By agreeing to arbitration, I am aware that this will waive any right that I may enjoy to seek a jury trial or sue. I agree that the arbitrator’s decision will be final and binding.
Full Name
Signature
Date
Legal Representation
The durable power of attorney is given to the chief doctor in charge of every section and they are referred to as attorney-in-fact. It is only the assigned doctor who has the authority to determine where, when and why some special operations have to be carried out. Some of these critical operations includes connecting and disconnecting the respirator. They are the supreme authority in matters relating to the life and any healthcare of the patient. This authority is delegated to these doctors by the hospital’s management and it is subject to review basin on performance and availability of the doctors concerned.
Abuse Reporting
Visionary health care provides a fair and leveled playing ground for anyone. No one should be discriminated at any given time based on any condition. The job seekers seeking to be recruited into this Hospital’s team should all be considered and judged fairly without any fear or fever because of race, nationality, gender age and any other existing type of relationships. No member of this team should be subjected to intimidation, threats or harassment of any kind. In rare cases where this happens, the abused person should always follow the relevant channels which involves filling a compliant form, offers the relevant support to investigative authorities like the police force and opposing any practice that goes against these standards and excise any contradicting practice. Visionary Health Care abides by all the existing federal rules and responsibilities and acts so should be our workers. It is our expectations that all out workers should familiarize themselves with the laws and any amendments. Any offended staff or employee should report immediately to the hospital top management or owners. Some of these federal rules includes; occupational health and safety laws, and California labor code 6310 and 6311.These laws protects the healthcare workers from retaliation actions. The laws specifically make sure that workers don’t bear the consequence when they fail to discharge their duties effectively in hazardous conditions (National Nurse United,2018).
Organizational Regulations
The management deserves the right to make any corrective action, that is, a process of making all the necessary communication with the employees in order to improve their work performance. This is only done after other method like appraisal and training fails to materialize and its aim is usually to guide the workers in order to correct the performance through problem identification, root causes and solutions. It is never meant to punish any worker. This is a progressive corrective action and may come in form of an oral warning, written warning, suspension with no pay, pay reduction within workers’ class, demotion to lower positions and dismissal if and only if all the previous methods are found to be in vain. These steps are progressive but the management reserves the right to use any method based on the magnitude of the matter and past record. A meeting is held whereby the workers concerned are given an opportunity to explain themselves at individual level before any progressive corrective action is taken. Dismissal and suspension of the worker may occur due to extreme misconduct at the work station like using abusive language, theft, fighting, destruction of office properties, deliberately delivering unsatisfactory services to our customers and clients, improper handling of confidential information, illegal possession of weapons at the work place and insubordination, that is, refusal to take an order as directed by senior workers like delegated assignments. This hospital defines a full working day as 8 hours with an hour break and we expect our workers to be flexible and abide by any change in shifts which will occur frequently but a prior notice will be issued to the affected workers. Any other unmentioned concern about labor should be addressed in line with the United States Department of labor regulations (United States Department of Labor, n.d.).
End of Life
This healthcare facility is committed to ensure that the patients under extremely serious conditions receives the best care even in there very last stages of life without any neglection. This is meant to ensure that even as the patient approaches their death, they die with dignity while enjoying the best ever services from our well-equipped institution. This care is referred to as pallative care and it is specifically meant to deal with relieving the patient’s symptoms but not aimed at curing the illness. For this reason, we have ensured that the facility has a twenty-four-hour access to nurses and oncology doctors.
State and Federal Regulations
The hospital is committed and dedicated towards the observation of Occupational Health and Safety and Health practices, regulations and standards (OSHA Law and Regulations). We understand that the responsibility of provision of safe and healthful work place lies squarely on us and we are committed towards the enhancement and enforcement of the set standards. The hospital management will frequently be training, offer outreach programs and educates the employers who are in turn required to play their part by complying with the provision of this act. The employers are required to keep their respective work places as clean as possible at all times, in order to eradicate any hazard. Federal laws observed includes maintaining the confidentiality of the records of alcohol and drug abuse patients, ensuring that the specialized services suppliers are kept constant in order to prevent them from risks like loss. Any health IT should not be promoted unless they are verified by the Federal Department of Health and Human Services.
Future Implications of Health Law
This hospital and all its workers are supposed to comply with any change in the law that can occur in future. With time, this healthcare unit may spread its wings further and this will consequently lead to an expansion in the scope of services. This change may be accompanied with a tremendous change in responsibilities and duties of the workers who are expected to be flexible enough and adhere to them. The institution operates in strict adherence to the Affordable Care Act (ACA). It is for this reason that this healthcare unit covers all adults irregardless of their financial and social status and also by supporting any relevant innovation in the field of our operations that can lead to cost effective service delivery.
References
Arizona State Hospital. (2017). Patients & families – privacy policies. Retrieved from www.azdhs.gov/az-state-hospital/index.php#patients-families-privacy-policies.
National Nurses United. (2018). Whistleblower Protection Laws for Healthcare Workers. Retrieved from: https://www.nationalnursesunited.org/whistleblower-protection-laws-for-healthcare-workers
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. (2017). Health Care Worker Certification. Retrieved from https://www.uscis.gov/working-united-states/temporary-workers/health-care-worker-certification.
United States Department of Labor. (2017). Occupational Safety and Health Administration: OSHA Law and Regulations. Retrieved from https://www.osha.gov/law-regs.html.
United States Department of Labor (n.d). Work Hours. Retrieved from https://www.dol.gov/general/topic/workhours.