Nolene, 

I'm *lucky* to have dual responsibility for RIM and global policy administration, so I've been able to design and roll out a comprehensive scheme for policy documentation that aligns with our corporate taxonomy. 

Policies are brief, broad documents that lay down basic principles with respect to a functional area. Our RIM policy is a succinct 2 pages. Documents at this level are approved by the executive committee.

Most policies are supported by one or more Guidelines (or Standards) documents, which flesh out 'by what method' the principles are to be addressed. Guidelines also provide contextual direction; e.g., under the "Data Privacy" policy there is a guidance document that addresses the unique requirements of HR data, and a separate one that talks about HIPAA data. Sometimes managers are concerned that 'guidelines' equals 'suggestions,' but it doesn't, and we state that in the documents ... as well as referring to them in the corresponding polic(ies).

Procedures and work instructions provide yet greater detail and are maintained at the business-unit level.

Of course it's essential to have crosswalks that keep all of the relationships straight. We're doing that by tying each document to one or more places on the taxonomy. 

Cheers,

Terry Mergele, CRM
Global RIM and Policy Manager
Kinetic Concepts, Inc.
San Antonio, TX 
Mobile 210-394-9422
Office 210-255-6260





      

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