Learning
Credentialing
Compliance
Managing required healthcare training sometimes feels like brushing your teeth while eating Oreos. Or cleaning with kids in the house. Or any other analogy you can think of that conveys the difficulty of maintaining relevant course content with ever-changing healthcare training requirements.
You have to be vigilant, resourceful, and agile. Or find a vendor who is (hint: MedTrainer).
In this article, I’ll share insight into how MedTrainer’s learning team keeps up with healthcare training requirements, and offer some suggestions if you’re creating content yourself.
What Are Healthcare Training Requirements?
Healthcare training requirements are specified by the federal government, state governments, sometimes city governments and accrediting bodies. They differ based on the employee’s role, the type of healthcare organization, and the regulatory environment in which the organization operates. Federal requirements are written into the Code of Federal Regulation (CFR), while you’ll find accreditation requirements in the accrediting agency’s standards. Here’s an example of the training required by the Joint Commission.
How MedTrainer’s Team Keeps Up
As you can imagine, identifying required training is labor intensive. That’s amplified by the fact that standards and regulations are often updated (like the 2024 HIPAA changes), and every state has their own unique requirements. About half of MedTrainer’s course production is tied to regulatory changes — and we update hundreds of courses a year. Here’s a look at how we ensure healthcare training program requirements are met.
1. Policy Research
MedTrainer’s in-house team includes a policy expert who stays up-to-date on federal policy changes and works with a team to research requirements by state and industry. This research is completed multiple times per year and tracked to ensure nothing is missed. It’s just as important to know what is required, as it is to know what cannot be required. For example, Florida’s Stop WOKE Act that prevents cultural competency training from being mandated for employees (another regulation that is a moving target).
If you’re going to maintain regulatory compliance yourself, some of the best places to look for regulatory changes include state-specific administrative codes, legal institutes, federal and state websites, licensing boards, and departments of health.
2. Create Content In-House
Creating all healthcare training in-house from start to finish gives MedTrainer total control over the content and timing. As soon as our policy researchers identify content changes, we are able to quickly make updates without waiting on a third party, subject matter expert, or production company. Even after the course is in use, adjustments are simple. For example, sometimes just adding a bit more information will align the course with requirements for an additional state.
If you’re going to create content in-house, make sure your team is properly resourced and that you have the time needed to continually update content when regulations and standards change.
3. Completely Focused on Healthcare
Staying completely focused on healthcare is one of the ways that MedTrainer is able to maintain a course library that meets all regulatory requirements. The library includes courses created for specific care settings and roles to make it easier for organizations to meet the requirements. When a training provider is trying to keep content up-to-date in many industries, it is only a matter of time before a requirement is missed. With a focus on healthcare, MedTrainer is also able to maintain a full roster of subject matter experts who review every course we create. It’s critical, especially in healthcare, to have properly-credentialed experts write or vet training content because even a small nuance could mean big problems for your organization.
4. Ensure Course Effectiveness
Completing the training is just one part of most regulations and standards — employee competency is also required. This can be measured with assessments that accompany each course and gauge effectiveness of the content. MedTrainer uses both subjective and data-driven course assessments to offer organizations insight into comprehension, engagement, and more. This level of competency may not be required in other industries, which puts generic learning management systems behind the curve.
If you’re creating your own courses, be sure to incorporate these competency checks and evaluate them on a regular basis to better identify — and mitigate — risks.
Simplify compliance training with MedTrainer Learning
Can You Keep Up With Changing Requirements?
Ultimately, that’s the question you have to ask yourself. Maybe your team has the capacity to handle it or you feel confident your learning management system vendor is keeping up. But, maybe you’ll realize that a healthcare-specific LMS like MedTrainer is the easiest way for your organization to mitigate compliance risks and meet regulations. Sometimes having that peace of mind is more important than anything else.