Alarming School Survey: “Thou Shall Not Snitch”
Posted In Education, Incident Reporting, Risk Management, School Safety, Validations on May 3rd, 2011 Tags: anonymous incident reporting, bullying, School Safety
What does recent school survey reveal about ‘thou shall not snitch’ culture? Can schools take advantage of real life situations to create a culture of preparedness, safety and prevention?
The responses to this survey at H.D. Woodson High School reveal opportunities for schools to open the lines of communication, but only if school leaders understand how to relate to students and how to build trust with students.
Lessons Learned: Status quo responses to a survey, status quo comments from adults and status quo news articles validate how status quo approaches are not going to solve the problems and new challenges schools and communities face in the real and changing world we all live in. A huge opportunity exists for visionary school leaders to make a difference by asking better questions that help to connect the dots and strengthen our weakest links.
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The ERC on Whistleblowing Workplace Misconduct
Posted In Government, Human Resources, Incident Reporting, Workplace Violence on May 3rd, 2011 Tags: employee misconduct, Ethics Resource Center, Incident Reporting, infosec island
The Ethics Resource Center’s (ERC) recent survey revealed that 40% of employees observing misconduct do not step forward to report it out of fear of retaliation, mistrust or feel their reports will be ignored.
Lessons Learned: Organizations must develop secure, anonymous and/or confidential reporting solutions to empower all employees (and third-parties) to report suspicious incidents, violence, fraud, misconduct, ethical violations, etc. And once an incident has been reported, all appropriate personnel (ethics, legal, management, compliance, safety, law enforcement, etc) should be immediately and automatically notified to ensure a timely response and ensure red flags do not fall through the cracks.
Based on other surveys and reports, the percentage of people reporting incidents is even lower and when tips are not reported, it is nearly impossible for organizations to proactively prevent or intervene.
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OIG tells CMS to Improve Hotline Responses
Posted In Government, Incident Reporting, Validations on May 3rd, 2011 Tags: Abuse Hotline, Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Fraud, Incident Reporting, OIG
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services needs to improve the way its staff and contractor staff process complaints from its waste, fraud and abuse hotline. Long timeframes and inefficient processes have delayed starting work on many complaints. On average, more than five months passed between CMS receiving complaints from OIG and contractors beginning work on them.
Lessons Learned: It is critical for government agencies and all organizations to improve responses to tips and hotline complaints. Not only are five months of inaction un-excusable, but employees aware of this timeframe will no longer trust and will no longer report incidents to hotlines that do not deliver results. Organizations must develop secure and anonymous incident reporting procedures and ensure all incidents are communicated to the appropriate personnel immediately for a timely and documented response to achieve trust and better results.
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Dept. of Education Releases Handbook to Help Higher-Ed Campuses Meet Safety Reporting Standards
Posted In Campus Safety, Education, Incident Reporting, School Safety, Validations on April 19th, 2011 Tags: Clery Act, FERPA, Handbook for Campus Safety and Security Reporting, HIPAA, OCR "Dear Colleague" Letter, School Safety
The U.S. Department of Education released the Handbook for Campus Safety and Security Reporting providing step-by-step procedures, examples, and references for higher education institutions to follow in meeting campus safety and security requirements.
Lessons Learned: College and University administrators are overwhelmed with responsibilities for HEOA, FERPA, HIPAA, Clery Act, OCR ‘Dear Colleague’ Letters, and much more and therefore guidance from the Federal Government can be helpful. It is critical for School Administrators to utilize resources and develop comprehensive campus safety programs and create a culture of compliance and preparedness that is ongoing. Traditional methodologies are clearly not working based on new handbooks, new regulations and mounting obligations and traditional tools are not capable of keeping up with all the new changes, so School Administrators must be open to new tools and new ideas to ensure better safety in schools.
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Ed. Dept. Isn’t Backing Down From Bullying Guidance
Posted In Campus Safety, Education, Incident Reporting, School Safety, Validations on April 19th, 2011 Tags: bullying prevention, Incident Reporting, OCR "Dear Colleague" Letter
The Department of Education and Office of Civil Rights sent out a “Dear Colleague” letter in October 2010 outlining schools’ responsibilities for being aware of, responding to and preventing future incidents of bullying, discrimination and harassment. In response to the National School Board Association’s letter questioning a school’s responsibilities, the Department of Education response clearly states it did not overreach in its original guidance to school officials— it only reiterated existing laws and policies and gave examples of how school districts can help combat bullying and harassment.
Lessons Learned: Schools have been put on notice and must develop comprehensive programs to respond to incidents of bullying and they must take actions to prevent future bullying incidents. Schools who fail to take appropriate actions risk losing educational funding and expensive lawsuits at a time when a funding cliff is looming large. Lessons learned also demonstrate that status quo approaches are not effective in preventing bullying so it will be critical for school boards and school leaders to implement more effective prevention and intervention programs immediately and document all incidents of bullying and harassment on an ongoing basis.
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In Brazil – Bullied Student to Cold-Blooded Killer
Posted In Campus Safety, Education, Incident Reporting, School Safety, Validations on April 19th, 2011 Tags: brazilian school shooting, bullying, school shootings, school violence
The Brazilian whose shooting spree left 12 school children dead was a loner who spent his days surfing the Web, and had been victim of schoolyard bullying and taunts. His classmates and former teachers said he was routinely bullied at school, rejected and taunted by girls in class, and forced to endure “constant humiliation”.
Lessons Learned: There are several lessons learned from this tragedy. Number One: Bullying can have a devastating effect on a child and can lead to severe violence. Number Two: Multiple red flags were given prior to this attack: recent clothing changes, change in mental state, researching weapons online, withdrawing from society, removal from family, losing job, etc. Number Three: It is critical that people are aware of tools to anonymously and non-anonymously report suspicious incidents or aggressive behaviors.
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Fighting Bullying with Lawsuits
Posted In Campus Safety, Education, Education, Incident Reporting, Regulatory Compliance, Research, School Safety, Validations on April 19th, 2011 Tags: bullying, Bullying Lawsuits, OCR "Dear Colleague" Letter
Lawsuits targeting school districts for allowing students to be bullied by other students are escalating.
Lessons Learned: With new guidelines outlined in an OCR “Dear Colleague” Letter and an increase in bullying, harassment, discrimination and school violence, schools need to be aware of the potential risk of lawsuits. School leaders must ensure all individuals (staff, faculty, parents, students, counselors, etc.) understand their roles and responsibilities for preventing and responding to bullying and how to report incidents of bullying. Schools must implement comprehensive and ongoing protocols for responding to ALL incidents of bullying and cyber bullying with legal-ready documentation to avoid “deliberate indifference” claims and lawsuits.
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EKU at “Vanguard of Campus Safety” with Campus Aggression Prevention System
Posted In Campus Safety, Education, Incident Reporting, School Safety, Validations on April 19th, 2011 Tags: Campus Aggression Prevention System, Campus Safety, Campus Violence, Red Flags
Eastern Kentucky University has implemented the Campus Aggression Prevention System (CAPS) in order to track both primal and cognitive aggression, identify acts of emerging aggression based on an objective scale and then record those acts in a software-based tracking system. Responders are trained to intervene appropriately to stop the aggressor before serious harm can be done.
Lessons Learned: In response to recent tragedies, many schools and colleges nation-wide are reviewing their programs for identifying, assessing, and intervening with students who show signs of distress and evaluating their policies and procedures for reporting red flags, suspicious or aggressive behaviors, violence, risks, etc. Lessons learned have clearly revealed that school/college leaders must let go of status quo approaches and look at new ways for improving situational awareness and connecting the dots to identify red flags, improve prevention, protect communities and save lives. One of the most concerning things is that students are not reporting acts of violence, bullying, harassment, etc. It is critical for schools to implement safe and non-retaliatory reporting procedures, policies, plans, and training for faculty to identity warning signs of violence.
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CVS Whistleblower Gets $2.6M and Pays Government $17.5M for Overbilling
Posted In Health Care, Incident Reporting, Information Security, Validations on April 19th, 2011 Tags: CVS Caremark, Incident Reporting, Medicaid, whistleblower
CVS Caremark Corp has agreed to pay $17.5 million to resolve claims that it overbilled Medicaid. The case was brought to the Justice Department by a whistleblower in Minnesota, who will receive $2.6 million.
Which makes more sense to you and your bottom line? A) Having employees report illegal and unethical situations internally so your organization can address situations and document them for legal and CYA purposes or B) having employees report illegal and unethical situations to the federal government and then dealing with expensive multi-million dollar fines, spending time and money and resources on repairing reputations and having the whistleblower get paid millions too?
Lessons Learned: Now that the federal government is paying whistleblowers and now that we also have Wikileaks and other public web sites to report to, organizations need to make sure they have a more holistic and comprehensive platform to connect all the dots internally with documentation to prove that your organization can receive tips, investigates tips, takes appropriate actions, alleviates future concerns and documents the entire process.
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Study shows: Hospital Errors Occur 10 Times More Than Reported
Posted In Health Care, Health Care, Incident Reporting, Research, Validations on April 18th, 2011
A new study revealed an enormous patient safety gap – up to 90 percent of patient injuries, infections and other safety issues are not being recorded. What does this mean for hospitals? What does this mean for patients? What does this mean for regulators?
Lessons Learned: Hospitals face serious patient safety and patient quality challenges and the key to improving patient safety will be their People – management, nurses, doctors, staff, partners, business associates, etc. Hospitals must ensure every individual has situational awareness and accountability for better decision making and a comprehensive incident reporting and incident management platform will be critical to get the right information to the right people at the right time.
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