4 Ways to drive quality improvement for healthcare organizationsHealthcare professionals face a variety of challenges when it comes to compliance: constantly changing laws, mounting administrative responsibilities, multiple siloed systems, staff turnover and more.

The industry as a whole is complex with countless required trainings and procedures, often making it a challenge to find effective ways to record and manage each step or piece of documentation necessary for compliance.

The typical healthcare organization has a patchwork method for managing compliance—with some systems only existing on paper—leaving chances for important pieces to fall through the cracks. Oftentimes, these deficiencies are only identified during an audit and could result in unwanted consequences. An overly complicated or unorganized tracking system can lead to compliance deficiencies and take time away from the mission of the organization – to serve patients.

Top Deficiencies for Healthcare Providers

According to a 2017 report published by the Healthcare Facilities Accreditation Program and the Accreditation Association for Hospitals/Health Systems, Inc., the top deficiencies for acute care hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers include the lack of review of medical records by medical staff; incomplete emergency and safety plans; training deficiencies; expired privileges; and many others.

Another survey conducted by the Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care also recently found that factors like credentialing and privileging, documentations, quality improvement and patient safety were common deficiencies. This report uses data from nearly 1,400 onsite accreditation surveys rated against the 2016 AAAHC Standards. Surveyed organizations include ambulatory surgery centers (ASC), Medicare-deemed status ASCs, office-based surgery facilities and primary care settings, including occupational and student health services.

All-in-one Compliance Management Overcomes Deficiencies

Healthcare providers can overcome these common deficiencies and strive for quality improvement by implementing a comprehensive, all-in-one compliance management system that allows doctors, nurses and administrative staff to effectively track and manage credentialing, education, compliance requirements, documents, and safety plans.

Read the full article on Becker’s Clinical Leadership & Infection Control to learn four ways that an all-in-one compliance management solution can help healthcare organizations overcome the deficiencies permeating across the industry and refocus on patient care.