One of the things that I learned from the television series M*A*S*H was the need for triage. In the hospital setting, triage is the process of determining the priority of patients’ treatments based on the severity of their condition. This is considered in different language in the Justice Department’s (DOJ) Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs (Evaluation), which under Prong 7 reads, in part, Properly Scoped Investigation by Qualified Personnel – How has the company ensured that the investigations have been properly scoped, See more +

One of the things that I learned from the television series M*A*S*H was the need for triage. In the hospital setting, triage is the process of determining the priority of patients’ treatments based on the severity of their condition. This is considered in different language in the Justice Department’s (DOJ) Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs (Evaluation), which under Prong 7 reads, in part, Properly Scoped Investigation by Qualified Personnel – How has the company ensured that the investigations have been properly scoped, and were independent, objective, appropriately conducted, and properly documented? Tying all of together is short but succinct statement found in the 2012 FCPA Guidance, “once an allegation is made, companies should have in place an efficient, reliable, and properly funded process for investigating the allegation and documenting the company’s response, including any disciplinary or remediation measures taken.”

Given the number of ways that information about violations or potential violations can be communicated to the government regulators, having a robust triage system is an important way that a company can separate the wheat from the chaff and bring the right number of resources to bear on a compliance problem. One of the things that this is important in making an initial determination of whether to bring in outside counsel to head up an investigation. It is also important in a determination of the resources that you may want or need to commit to a problem. You literally need to “kick the tires” of any allegations or information so that you know the circumstances in front of you before you make the decision going forward. You can do this through a robust triage process.

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