One City Built to Last

y peter suciu
OBAMACARE FUELS
Compliance Industry Services
Implementation of the
Affordable Care Act
– less affectionately
known as Obamacare –
has meant a boom in business
for Sharon Bradley,
RN, MBA, CHC, CPHQ,
CPHRM. She is a health care compliance,
quality, and risk management
professional, and one who isn’t angered
by all of the new rules, regulations and
standards for compliance. Her firm,
CRAQ Health Care Consulting, LLC,
based in Daytona Beach, Florida, thrives
on meeting government mandates. The
Affordable Care Act contains a whole
host of mandates for health care organizations
and CRAQ, which stands for
Compliance, Risk, Accreditation, and
Quality, is prepared to assist organizations
in meeting those requirements. As
president of the firm, Bradley welcomes
involvement with Obamacare.
In fact, helping hospitals, clinics, long
term care facilities and other medical
organizations meet governmental compliance
standards is nothing new for
Bradley. As an independent health care
compliance consultant, Obamacare’s
requirements seem more like another
round of government-issued mandates,
except with a stronger compliance bite.
“Prior to the Affordable Care Act, we
had the Deficit Reduction Act, which
had a compliance program but it was
considered more of an ‘involuntaril
mandatory’ situation,” Bradley explains.
“You did not necessarily have to
have a compliance program, but if you
ran afoul of the government’s rules and
regulations, you could end up paying
significant fines and penalties.”
Today, compliance programs are
mandatory. Bradley welcomes this. In
her opinion, having a robust compliance
program is “the best mitigation strategy”
for avoiding penalties.
Starting her career as a registered
nurse in Florida, she quickly worked
her way up the clinical ladder into management,
and she was put in charge of
quality management, risk management
and compliance. After a stint managing
these issues for two hospitals jointly
owned by a for-profit, multi-hospital
health system, she took a position
handling corporate quality management
and compliance for Tenet, a large,
for-profit, multi-hospital system. In 2007,
Bradley became a senior vice president
with Marsh, a global firm specializing in
risk and insurance services. She was consulting
for hospitals across the country,
a skill set that came in handy when she
was downsized in 2013, and it was then
that Bradley decided to hang out her
own shingle.
“All of my experience developed my
taste and approach in how I consult with
hospitals, ambulatory care centers, provider
practices and long-term care centers,”
Bradley said. “My clients today
appreciate the fact that I have been to
hundreds of hospitals and other health
care organizations across the nation and
I have seen how others handle compliance.
I have seen what works well and
what does not work well and I bring
those experiences to each new client
when I consult.”
She notes that the medical profession is
becoming increasingly dependent on information
technology – particularly with
the new requirements under Obamacare
further mandating electronic medical
records. This dependency should not replace
the human element, which in Bradley’s
estimation, more easily catches errors
in medical records, thus protecting
patient safety more effectively.
“I certainly understand that there are
errors in IT – and I find them when doing
reviews,” Bradley said. “The biggest key
to patient safety though is for the medial
professionals to engage the patients,
their families and their support systems.
Don’t approach their care as just a rote
set of tasks – but have engaged conversations
with them and with their families.
That is what really keeps them safe.”
Learn more about Bradley and her services
via CRAQ Healthcare Consulting,
LLC, at CRAQhealthcare.com .
THE SUIT MAGAZINE p.37