Recorded live at HCCA’s 20th Anniversary Compliance Institute, HCCA Board Member, Margaret Hambleton, and host Kortney Nordrum discuss the important first steps in building a compliance and ethics program (hint: it’s a risk assessment), including:

* Three steps to build your programs and perform yearly checkups;

* Why you always start with a risk assessment;

* Why you need to be as smart about your business as your CEO;

* How to assess and prioritize risk;

* Knowing how and where to audit in new and established programs;

* Building a work plan;

* Getting buy-in from your board (even if it means scaring them); and

* The ins and outs of risk appetite.

Margaret Hambleton, MBA, CHC, CHPC is Vice President, Corporate Compliance Officer for Dignity Health (formerly known as Catholic Healthcare West), based in Pasadena, California.  Ms. Hambleton responsibilities include managing Compliance operations, with responsibility for ensuring system wide transparency and compliance with all laws and regulations and developing effective, cohesive, and financially prudent compliance strategies with Dignity Health Board of Director’s Audit & Compliance Committee.  She was formerly the Senior Vice President Ministry Integrity and Chief Compliance Officer for St. Joseph Health System, based in Irvine, California.  Her responsibilities included oversight of the Corporate Responsibility Program throughout the health system and its ministries.  Ms. Hambleton reported regularly to the SJHS Board on the effectiveness of the program and materially significant compliance risks to the organization.  She ensured that appropriate and effective goals were developed, implemented, and monitored in accordance with governmental standards and requirements, and the organizations mission and values.

Before joining St. Joseph Health System, Ms. Hambleton was System Director of Corporate Compliance at Catholic Healthcare West, where she was responsible for corporate compliance programs for 11 hospitals in California.

Previously, Ms. Hambleton served as Risk Manager, responsible for claims management, risk financing, and loss prevention at two hospitals in Southern California.  In addition, she served as a Director of Human Resources, responsible for the direction and execution of all human resources functions, including payroll, policy and procedures, compensation, benefits, recruitment, employment, employee relations, and employee health and safety.

Ms. Hambleton has been an active member in the Healthcare Compliance Association (HCCA) since 2000 and is currently a member of the HCCA Board of Directors.  Ms. Hambleton has lectured for HCCA on topics in corporate compliance, risk management, risk assessment processes, and the role of quality in healthcare compliance.

Ms. Hambleton received the Certified Professional in Healthcare Risk Management designation in June 2000, became certified in Healthcare Compliance in 2003, and became certified in Healthcare Privacy Compliance in 2009.  She received her Master’s Degree in Business Administration in 1984 from the University of Phoenix and her Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from California State University, Northridge in 1982.