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Think back to when you were younger. We’re talking childhood: the time around age seven when you were concerned with doing whatever it took to get around the rules – to get what you wanted with little effort and as slim a chance of repercussions as possible. For example, if you wrote on the walls with crayon, and your parents began listing out your consequences, you may have said, “No, you told MY SISTER she couldn’t write on the walls!” In reality, your parents figured you were old enough to understand the rule also applied to you, but technically? You may actually have had a chance of winning that argument. Same for when you were a teenager: “You said my curfew was 12:00. But you didn’t say a.m. or p.m.!” Sound familiar? Whether these technicalities flew within your own household, we can’t say (though we hope not!). But the point is that one missed detail can skew the results of an entire case.

Even if it has more so to do with getting around actual legal boundaries and blurred morality lines, this “I’m not touching you!” mindset still occurs within our adult lives on a regular basis. A perfect parallel is that of policy dissemination in the workplace. One example is a recent case in which an Alabama woman was charged with a HIPAA privacy violation for stealing patient information from a Birmingham medical center’s registration desk, with the intent of committing identity theft. The woman, Chelsea Stewart, had a previous criminal past. Furthermore, upon search of her residence, authorities uncovered the stolen paperwork, along with “to-do” lists that pointed straight to her intentions. This evidence implies that the case should be straightforward, and she should easily face consequences, right?

But of course, there’s a big ol’ wrench in the cogs of the case:  Stewart was not directly employed by Trinity Medical Center, and thus was not 100% responsible for complying with HIPAA standards in the same way as permanent staff. Which begs the question: “Who is REALLY at fault?” While Stewart’s actions were, without a doubt, no way morally permissible, the brunt of the consequences may lie in the hands of the medical center due to technical error. Whether that’s true is unknown and the blame is no doubt shared among many. But the fact of the matter is that the incident cost the medical center time, money, and face that could’ve been saved and put to use elsewhere – and they will never get it back.

How can you ensure the most attentive and knowledgeable staff, so compliance doesn’t slip through the cracks? Here are our top three tips.