Charles Coy, director of product marketing for Cornerstone OnDemand
In today’s increasingly competitive environment, the challenges of delivering quality healthcare continue to intensify. Going up against greater economic pressures and a more complex regulatory environment, more healthcare leaders are investing in technology solutions for automating key processes, fostering efficiencies and gaining better organizational insight.
For example, automating the performance observation process – which in some organizations tends to be inefficient and paper-based – can have a strategic business impact in terms of maintaining compliance, identifying and addressing skill and competency gaps, and ensuring a consistent patient care experience. In fact, according to research from human capital management consultancy CedarCrestone, companies that automate performance management processes can reduce operational costs by 20 percent.
On a basic level, automating the performance observation process can help to reduce errors inherent in manual evaluations – from data entry errors to misplaced appraisal forms that get buried amidst the mountains of paperwork found in hospital and other healthcare settings. It also grants multiple “validators” with easy access to the same centralized records for assessing and capturing individual competencies – in turn allowing administrators to track and report on competency levels across an organization. And moving the process online gives administrators the ability to establish a standard set of competencies across multiple, geographically dispersed facilities.
Compliance Reporting
As one of the most tightly regulated industries, healthcare must adhere to myriad federal, state and industry-specified regulations that define and approve standards of patient care. The now random surveys and “tracer” audits by The Joint Commission, which determines healthcare accreditation, puts further pressure on accredited organizations and forces them to maintain a constant state of readiness. These “tracer” audits follow each patient through his/her hospitalization, identify all involved care workers and require the organization to be able to supply up-to-date files for any employee, without advanced notice.
The ability to electronically capture and track evaluations of observed healthcare workers in a clinical setting in real time helps organizations stay on top of these regulatory firedrills, ensuring that reporting is accurate and timely. By automating and aligning clinical, patient and safety care evaluation checklists against regulatory stipulations, today’s technology solutions can make it easier to track and validate proficiency in needed compliance-specified skills. Organizations are also able to run reports on-demand for access to information such as completion data, upcoming deadlines and specific competency achievements by roles or units. In terms of risk mitigation, automated and centralized information capture creates a durable record that may be needed in the face of a complex, shifting regulatory environment that includes The Joint Commission, OSHA, FDA, HIPPA, EPA and other government entities.
Building a More Skilled Workforce
Feeling the pinch more than other industries, healthcare organizations are challenged to fill key positions with qualified employees. In fact, a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association estimates there will be 400,000 fewer practicing nurses in the US in 2020 than in 2007. Given this, it is vital for healthcare organizations to develop and retain their pool of knowledgeable and qualified employees.
By automating the performance observation of healthcare workers in action with real patients, healthcare managers can take advantage of just in time training. If an employee fails to be “checked off” on a clinical or patient care competency, the system provides a clear understanding of where the knowledge gaps exist. In such cases, clinical educators can assign specific training to immediately address the skill deficiency.
BJC HealthCare, one of the largest non-profit healthcare organizations in the U.S., is an example of an organization that is transitioning to an online solution for its performance observation process. The tools will integrate with BJC’s learning management system (LMS), which is used to train, develop and ensure compliance for 26,000 employees across 13 hospitals and multiple community health locations. The learning portal allows healthcare workers to access both in-classroom and online learning courses – most of which were created specifically by BJC’s Learning and Development team.
BJC’s clinical educators currently manage the observation part of making sure BJC’s nurses and other healthcare staff are competent. Integrating the process online with BJC’s LMS will allow the educators to check off competencies, add relevant comments and then automatically recommend a course if the nurse being observed requires more training. The nurse could then log on to the online learning portal to not only sign-up for and take the course, but then also indicate for administrators that the course was successfully completed.
Delivering a Better Patient Experience
By integrating automated real-time performance evaluation technology with training and development processes, administrators and managers can easily track and monitor the quality and consistency of care delivery across a network of hospitals.
For example, BJC is implementing a “Nurse Portability Project,” which will allow nurses to fill open shifts at other BJC hospitals. To be eligible for this project, nurses will be evaluated on a specified set of on-the-job clinical competencies. By setting a consistent framework of competencies, the organization is better able to ensure it is delivering the same quality of patient experience and care at all of its locations, ultimately helping to improve customer satisfaction. This consistent competency framework will also eliminate the need to use agency nurses that may not have the same skill level that BJC requires.
Out with the Old
More than other industries, healthcare seems to be stuck in inefficient, paper-based processes, yet their complex regulatory obligations and economic pressures demand change. By taking advantage of technology solutions that automate these processes, healthcare organizations can transform administrative headaches into valuable avenues for cost savings and minimization of compliance risk, while also achieving the topmost priorities of delivering exceptional patient care and heightening patient satisfaction. While making this technology jump may seem daunting, today’s Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)-based solutions offer a faster, lower cost and more flexible way for healthcare organizations to configure and deploy such systems. Given that organizations can be up and running on these solutions in weeks versus months or years, it’s time to abandon those old, inefficient processes and make that jump.
About the Author:
Charles Coy is the director of product marketing for Cornerstone OnDemand, a global provider of comprehensive learning and talent management software and services. For more information, visit http://www.cornerstoneondemand.com/.
