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It’s no secret that healthcare is rife with policies, regulations, rules, and compliance requirements to ensure patient safety, proper reimbursement by payers, and smooth operations. It’s why policy management systems have become some of the most important technologies in healthcare organizations—and why a policy management system for healthcare benefits your organization in more ways than one.
For decades, healthcare policy management was all done on paper. Documents were passed around and approved using a disjointed manual process that was fraught with inefficiencies. Advancement came with digital processes, but even these have their drawbacks: with everything likely on a company drive, only certain people have access, there is no version control, it’s hard to determine if everyone has acknowledged the policy, and employees can’t easily access the policies when a question arises.
Today’s healthcare landscape demands a smarter, more efficient process: one with automation, intuitive workflows, and comprehensive tracking for audits.
Ready to evaluate compliance software options? Start here.
What Is a Healthcare Policy Management Software?
Digital healthcare policy management software manages these complex processes with every single step in one cloud-based platform that is easily accessible to employees, management, and regulators.
A healthcare policy management system is a computerized solution to store, share, track, sign, and manage files and documents. Every step of a healthcare policy workflow, from drafting, distribution, signature capture, and reporting/tracking, is managed on one platform. With all healthcare policies in one place, organizations can meet compliance and accreditation requirements with automated, multi-person electronic signing.
Plus, HR saves time on new hire onboarding by assigning all policies with one click. Advancements in AI technology even enable routine tasks to be automated, ensuring consistency and accuracy in workflows and earning valuable time back for your team.
5 Key Benefits of a Digital Healthcare Policy Management System
1. Reduced Document Management Costs
Eliminating multiple digital tools consolidates vendors and contracts, saving money for your organization. Healthcare–specific solutions are often less expensive than mainstream, generalized solutions that cater to large industries. They’re also built with the complexities of healthcare compliance workflows in mind. In addition to all the money you’ll save, you’re also juggling fewer logins and support teams.
2. Easy Audit Compliance
Policy management software for healthcare uses a drag-and-drop folder system that makes it easy to keep things organized and accessible for auditors. Since surveyors want to see versions, approvals, and acknowledgements of policies in healthcare, having a solution where actions are automatically tracked provides confidence with real-time status, logs, and reports.
3. Increased Efficiency
Using a comprehensive policy management system for healthcare, all aspects are in one platform, making compliance processes quicker, easier, and more accessible to your entire team. Most healthcare professionals want to spend time caring for patients, not completing administrative tasks. If you’re able to reduce the time spent on paperwork and signatures, you’re likely to have happier employees and a stronger retention rate.
4. Stay Compliant When Regulations Change
Every time a federal or state regulation changes, policies need to be revised, approved, shared, and acknowledged. Using a manual system, you might weigh the risk of not updating the policy against the time you know it will take to complete the approval/acknowledgement process.
A key benefit is that a digital policy management system has a policy template library with thousands of up-to-date, compliant policies that can be edited, organized, sent for signature, and more, all in one automated workflow. Take compliance to the next level with advanced AI tools that review policy content, identify gaps given changes to regulations, and offer suggested text along with rationale to meet the new regulatory requirements.
5. Complete New Hire Onboarding Faster
The average new hire completes 54 tasks, from paperwork to training and everything in between. Healthcare’s high turnover rate makes this process even more daunting. Using a policy management system for healthcare, you can assign all policy acknowledgements with one click by the new hire’s role, department, and location. You could even do it before their start date, which means you’re getting the new hire in place faster.
What To Look for in a Policy Management System for Healthcare
Policy Creation
Choose a healthcare policy management software solution that offers the ability to both create and upload documents. You’ll probably also want the ability to offer fillable forms so that the HR team can get new hires to complete W-2 and I-9 forms online. Built-in collaboration tools also simplify the revision and approval process.
Healthcare Policy Management & Reporting
Healthcare organizations need greater visibility into which employees have — and have not — reviewed and acknowledged policies. It’s why a policy management system for healthcare can be extremely helpful. Look for automated tracking and customizable reporting for immediate access to reports that are ready for a regulatory or accreditation inspection.
Electronic Signatures
Incorporating electronic signing into the same place as document creation, management, and reporting is a game changer for healthcare organizations — especially those accredited by The Joint Commission. Be sure the policy management software you choose offers a mobile-friendly experience since many of your employees spend more time on their feet than behind a desk.
HRIS Integration
Choosing a policy management platform in healthcare that integrates with your human resources information system (HRIS) further reduces the back-and-forth associated with healthcare’s high turnover rate. When new employees are added to the HRIS, they can be automatically assigned all required policies by role, department, or location. This is a huge time saver!
Simplify Compliance with MedTrainer’s Healthcare Policy Management System
MedTrainer accelerates compliance with a unified digital platform that optimizes workflows and streamlines education, credentialing, and documentation. Our award-winning healthcare policy management system is the go-to choice for organizations of all sizes.
Schedule a demo so a MedTrainer expert can show you how the platform is superior.