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DPH compliance office details new training and monitoring after whistleblower raises Laguna Honda concerns
Summary
Acting director Garrett Chatfield outlined OCPA's fiscal 2018—19 work, including new interactive training, expanded monitoring and plans for an executive compliance committee; whistleblower Dr. Derek Kerr told the commission the program missed repeated patient-abuse reports at Laguna Honda and urged more frequent disclosure of investigation outcomes.
Acting Office of Compliance & Privacy Affairs Director Garrett Chatfield told the San Francisco Department of Public Health (DPH) Health Commission that his office expanded monitoring, updated its code of conduct and launched an interactive privacy-and-compliance training module as part of efforts to detect and prevent fraud, privacy breaches and misuse of city resources.
Chatfield said the office increased hospital monitoring projects (from about 14 to about 25), added a compliance officer for population health and revised the code of conduct and conflict-of-interest rules. He described plans to convene an executive-level DPH compliance committee and to use EPIC's audit tools to monitor inappropriate access to patient records and make routine audit triggers for high-profile or confidential records.
The presentation focused on compliance functions (fraud, waste and abuse), privacy protections under HIPAA and the California Medical Information Act, whistleblower investigations, and data-sharing arrangements such as EPIC CareLink. Chatfield said OCPA also began issuing a bimonthly newsletter and expanded targeted in-person trainings alongside the online module.
At the public-comment period whistleblower Dr. Derek Kerr told the commission the department had "the biggest compliance and privacy failure in Laguna Honda's history," alleging the hotline and compliance program "missed dozens of patient abuses over three years." Kerr said the office's annual report omitted critical information about investigation outcomes and retaliation complaints and recommended OCPA report substantiation rates and provide compliance updates more frequently than once a year.
Director Grant Colfax acknowledged the office's progress and praised the leadership of Chatfield and Maggie Rykowski, who is reassigned to Laguna Honda. Commissioners pressed staff on how OCPA measures quality versus compliance, staffing vacancies, and how EPIC will be used for monitoring. Chatfield said some investigative positions remain vacant but that the office is working with HR to fill roles and that EPIC will enable easier identification of inappropriate record access.
Roland Pickens, director of the Health Network, added that clinical quality is being elevated to the network level and that a department-level quality report with measures and metrics is expected "within the next six months." Commissioners asked that OCPA link the high-level strategic materials to the more detailed A3 plans and provide clearer metrics and timelines in future reports.
The commission did not take formal action on the report during the meeting; commissioners asked for follow-up data on measures, staffing fill-rates and proposals for more frequent reporting to address whistleblower concerns.
