Organization in Quality Healthcare: How Less Paperwork Can Fuel ProductivityWhile e-mail and complex workflow management systems have redefined communications within the workplace, the communication process within broader networks can present gaping holes. Especially in the healthcare industry—where credentialing, onboarding, monitoring, OIG checks, etc., are a requirement for regulatory compliance—accurate, expedited communications are of utmost importance. Decreasing the amount of paperwork is not always feasible, but certain tools can simplify the document management processes to fuel overall productivity.

The Beauty of Centralization

For many medical practice managers, office administrators, and Human Resources representatives, the challenges of credentialing, onboarding and training employees, and maintaining safety procedures for the practice can be more than a full-time job. The tasks are time consuming and require several systems—either paper-based or virtual—that do not effectively integrate with one another. A patchwork process can lead to discrepancies among systems, making it difficult to quickly find accurate information. Worse yet, lack of centralization can make it nearly impossible to maintain requirements for compliance, resulting in less-than-favorable audit results. These deficiencies can lead to hefty fees or lawsuits for healthcare providers, distracting them from daily responsibilities and negatively affecting patient care.

Streamlined Detail Management

Credentialing management is one aspect that requires time-consuming attention to detail. Time often is spent on keeping track of looming expiration dates, credential status, and privileging rather than ensuring best practices and quality patient care. Tracking documentation, scheduling trainings, and maintaining accurate records for each staff member can result in lost or duplicate information and inconsistencies. The ability to assign trainings, certifications, and privileging to individuals or groups all within one system is the ultimate time-saver.

Simplified Onboarding

Simplified onboarding is especially helpful in the development and opening of new healthcare organizations that need to train and certify large numbers of new staff members at the same time. As healthcare provider locations open and grow, a single system for training and credentialing management can prevent future credentialing issues. There should be a system in place that offers standardized courses and easy-to-assign trainings employees can work through independently. Staff no longer will lose important documents or miss scheduled in-person training dates when they have access to all the information and necessary learning courses online. When the assigned task is complete, in-system notifications should inform the correct administrator, ultimately saving the Human Resources and administrative staff valuable time.

Quality Training Materials

Healthcare organizations struggle to find affordable, high-quality, up-to-date training materials that reflect current standards and best practices. Without the necessary resources to develop high-quality training materials, healthcare providers often keep outdated materials on hand in folders and binders to minimize costs. A single system should include an extensive library of hundreds of courses on a wide range of topics from reputable sources. When managed by a third party, the courses are updated to reflect the most recent standards and best practices to ensure employees receive consistent, up-to-date information across the board.

Courses that are interactive and engaging, as opposed to a training with static information from a dusty binder, are always more effective. When staff are encouraged to connect with the course materials, they remain interested in the information that is presented to them. High-quality learning can minimize risk of errors and increase safety measures for staff and patients alike.

Effective Safety Procedures

For safety procedures to be effective, they must be consistent and easily accessible to the people who need them. An all-in-one system standardizes and records safety procedures. Predetermined permissions make these procedures available to the specific staff members who will need them. A streamlined system will allow HR staff to assign new procedure acknowledgements to multiple staff members with complex patient care schedules; see who has read, signed, and accepted them; and notify new employees who have not yet read and accepted new procedures. Providers also can use the system to house their safety data sheets (SDS) in an online database, allowing users to quickly access the information at any time.

Managing credentialing, privileging, and training doesn’t have to be complicated and time consuming. By implementing an all-in-one system, HR representatives and provider administrators can save time, reduce costs, and mitigate the risk of deficiencies, in turn, refocusing their time on providing high-quality patient care.

Steve Gallion co-founded MedTrainer to address the challenges of maintaining compliance in healthcare and now serves various other regulated industries, including retail, pharmaceutical, hospitality, grocery, manufacturing, and technology. The company’s all-in-one compliance management system encompasses all the tools necessary to streamline management processes, increase departmental collaboration, and simplify compliance.Read the full article on Training Magazine to learn how less paperwork can fuel productivity.