INSIDE - Health Care Compliance Association

July 2003
feature
14
Editor’s note: This feature interview with
Britt Crewse, MBA, MHS, HCCA
Region IV President and Associate VP
and Chief Compliance and Privacy
Officer with Duke University Health
System, was conducted in the Spring of
2003 by Debbie Troklus, CHC, Assistant
Vice President for Compliance and
Privacy, University of Louisville School of
Medicine. Britt may be reached at
919/668-6250 and Debbie may be
reached at 502/852-0758.
DT: Tell me about your background
prior to compliance? What in your
background do you feel prepared you
for life as a compliance professional?
BC: My background and masters
degrees are in business and in the hospital
administration field. I became a
CPA while working as a senior manager
in a Big 5 accounting firm, where I
learned a great deal about compliance
while helping health care organizations
implement compliance programs. I
have been consulting or in the compliance
officer role since 1997.
DT: Tell me a little about your position,
what your title is and what do
your responsibilities include?
BC: I am the associate vice president
and chief compliance and privacy officer
for Duke University Health System.
My primary responsibilities include
oversight of DUHS’s compliance activities,
ensuring the evaluation and
demonstration of program effectiveness.
article
Meet Britt Crewse, MBA,MHS
Associate VP and Chief Compliance
and Privacy Officer,
Duke University Health System
I oversee the implementation and execution
of the annual DUHS compliance
workplan that audits and monitors
compliance risk areas. I work in collaboration
with the Duke Private Diagnostic
Clinic and the Duke School of
Medicine to ensure compliance
throughout all of Duke.
In 2001, I was designated DUHS’
Privacy Officer. As Privacy Officer, I
was charged with overseeing all ongoing
activities related to the development,
implementation, and adherence to privacy
policies and procedures related to
patients’ protected health information.
DT: At Duke, are there separate compliance
officers or contacts for the hospital,
clinics, etc? Do you work on a
compliance liaison approach?
BC: Duke’s organizational structure,
like many academic health systems, is
unique. The health system consists of
three hospitals, 70 employed primary
care physicians, home health, and hospice.
The Duke Private Diagnostic
Clinic is the multi-specialty teaching
physician group consisting of 850
physicians and 200 non-physician
practitioners. Finally, we have the Duke
University School of Medicine that
primarily consists of our 2,400 clinical
trials and research components of
Duke. When you combine these with
the support areas (finance, IT, etc.)
there are approximately 20,000 health
care workforce members at Duke.
Each of the three components of
Duke has separate compliance officers.
The School of Medicine and Duke
PDC compliance officers have a dotted
line reporting relationship to me.
With-in Duke University Health
System, we have compliance liaisons at
each of the facilities. Each of the compliance
liaisons reports directly to me
for compliance-related issues.
DT: What does the compliance
organizational structure look like? Also