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The Power of Healthcare Software Integration and Digital Competency Management Platforms
The healthcare industry is witnessing a dynamic transformation, driven by the integration of software systems that revolutionize patient care, resource allocation, administrative efficiency, and risk mitigation. In this era of digital prowess, healthcare organizations must embrace innovative technologies, especially digital competency management platforms, to navigate staffing constraints and elevate their digital literacy.
This blog post delves into the significance of software systems integration and its profound impact on healthcare, focusing on the transformative capabilities of digital competency management platforms.
Streamlining Resource Allocation
One of the foremost advantages of software systems integration in healthcare is the streamlining of resource allocation. Traditional resource allocation methods often rely on manual processes that can be time-consuming and prone to errors. However, by integrating various software systems, such as electronic health records (EHR), patient scheduling, and inventory management, healthcare providers gain real-time insights into patient demand, staff availability, and resource requirements.
Digital competency management platforms play a pivotal role in optimizing staff allocation by providing detailed insights into the competencies and skills of healthcare professionals. This enables organizations to match specific tasks with the most qualified individuals, resulting in improved patient outcomes and more efficient use of resources.
Overcoming Resource and Staffing Constraints
Healthcare organizations frequently face resource and staffing constraint challenges. These constraints can arise due to fluctuations in patient volumes, unexpected staff absences, or rapidly changing medical requirements. Software systems integration, coupled with a digital competency management platform, helps healthcare facilities tackle these issues more effectively.
By integrating digital competency data with scheduling systems, administrators can identify staff members with the necessary skills to fill critical roles promptly. This ensures patients receive the care they need, even during peak demand periods, reducing wait times and enhancing overall patient satisfaction.
Optimizing Administrative Operations
The integration of software systems is not limited to clinical aspects but extends to the administrative side of healthcare operations as well. Digital competency management platforms enable streamlined record-keeping and tracking of staff training and certifications. This eliminates the need for cumbersome paper-based processes and simplifies compliance reporting.
Moreover, integrated software systems facilitate seamless communication and collaboration among different departments, enhancing efficiency and reducing administrative burden. By centralizing administrative functions and competency data, healthcare organizations can allocate their resources more effectively and focus on patient care.
Mitigating Risk from Lost Documentation
Lost or misplaced documentation can have severe consequences in the healthcare sector, leading to medical errors, legal liabilities, and compromised patient safety. Healthcare software integration, particularly with the aid of digital competency management platforms, serves as a powerful tool to mitigate such risks.
With a centralized digital platform, all relevant documentation, including training records, certifications, and competencies, are securely stored and easily accessible to authorized personnel. This level of digital organization ensures that critical information is readily available at the point of care, minimizing the potential for errors and safeguarding patient well-being.
Conclusion
The integration of software systems in healthcare, supported by robust digital competency management platforms, has become indispensable in today’s digital age. These advancements enable healthcare organizations to optimize resource allocation, overcome staffing constraints, streamline administrative operations, and mitigate the risks associated with lost documentation.
By embracing software systems integration and digital competency management, healthcare facilities can enhance their digital proficiency, drive improved patient outcomes, and achieve a higher standard of care for all. As the healthcare landscape continues to evolve, investing in these technologies is not just a choice but a necessity for staying ahead in a digitally empowered world.
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Unleashing the Power of Competency Management with Digital Solutions
In the fast-paced and dynamic world of healthcare, competency is the cornerstone of success. Competent healthcare professionals ensure patient safety, drive quality outcomes, and foster environments of continuous improvement. However, managing competencies efficiently and effectively has long been challenging for healthcare executives. In this post, we will explore the vital importance of competency in healthcare and delve into how Dossier’s innovative digital solutions alleviate administrative burdens, driving a positive organizational culture.
Competencies on the Brink of Collapse
A competency crisis looms over the healthcare sector due to the departure of numerous experienced professionals, primarily nurses, from their roles. This exodus has left a void of vital practical knowledge pivotal in delivering quality healthcare.
Simultaneously, while there is an encouraging influx of newly educated nurses, these newcomers often lack the necessary hands-on experience. The shortage of experienced mentors to offer guidance during the newcomers’ critical transition into practice poses a significant challenge. If not promptly addressed, this crisis threatens the overall effectiveness of healthcare delivery, potentially leading to a decline in care standards and jeopardizing patient safety.
Importance of Competency in Healthcare
Competency is the bedrock of delivering exceptional patient care. It encompasses a healthcare professional’s knowledge, skills, decision making, and abilities required to properly perform their duties confidently.
There are many compelling reasons why competency should be a top priority for healthcare executives. A competent care team focuses on:
Patient Safety: Competent healthcare professionals minimize the risk of errors, ensuring patient safety at all times. Organizations can significantly reduce adverse events and medical errors by maintaining a highly skilled workforce.
Quality Outcomes: Competency directly impacts the quality of care delivered. When healthcare professionals are competent, they can provide evidence-based and patient-centered care, leading to improved outcomes and patient satisfaction.
Regulatory Compliance: Healthcare organizations must comply with a multitude of regulatory requirements. Competency management plays a crucial role in meeting these standards, ensuring that staff possess the necessary qualifications and training to fulfill regulatory obligations.
Talent Management and Retention: Investing in competency development and recognition fosters a positive work environment, improving staff engagement and retention. Competent professionals are more likely to feel valued and satisfied, reducing turnover.
Simplifying Competency Management
Digital competency management platforms offer healthcare executives a comprehensive, real-time view. Staff appreciate having streamlined and optimized competency-related processes. By digitizing paper-based competencies, Dossier empowers organizations to harness the full potential of their workforce.
Here are some key benefits Dossier brings to healthcare organizations:
Centralized Competency Management: Dossier’s competency management software provides a centralized repository for managing competencies. This eliminates the need for cumbersome paper-based systems and allows seamless access, review, and tracking of competencies across departments and locations.
Automated Tracking and Reminders: With Dossier, department leaders can automate competency tracking and receive timely reminders for renewals, expirations, and upcoming training requirements. This ensures compliance and reduces the risk of staff operating without up-to-date qualifications.
Customizable Competency Frameworks: Dossier allows organizations to create and tailor competency frameworks to their specific needs. This flexibility enables the alignment of competencies with organizational goals and evolving industry standards.
Real-Time Reporting: Dossier’s robust reporting and analytics capabilities provide healthcare executives with valuable insights into competency-related data and remove the frustrations of reporting on Audit Day. These actionable analytics enable data-driven decision-making, identify competency gaps, and optimize training strategies.
Enhanced Organizational Culture: Dossier helps foster a positive organizational culture by digitizing and simplifying competency management. It reduces administrative burdens, freeing up time for staff to focus on patient care and professional development. This emphasis on competency and growth creates a nurturing environment that attracts and retains top talent.
Conclusion
Competency is the backbone of successful healthcare organizations. Prioritizing and effectively managing competencies ensures patient safety and quality outcomes and enhances the overall organizational culture. Dossier’s competency management platform offers a transformative solution that digitizes paper-based competencies, streamlines processes, and optimizes workforce potential. By partnering with Dossier, healthcare organizations are embracing the future of competency management, empowering their teams to thrive in the ever-evolving healthcare landscape.
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Last week the Dossier team in Norway hosted a webinar spotlighting task distribution in healthcare as key to resolving soaring capacity and staff shortage challenges. Rethinking of roles and responsibilities of healthcare team members is as critical as compliance, policy, and regulations.
Rethinking roles and responsibilities must be approached from multiple angles. Each solution is only available if healthcare organizations are structured and operate differently.
However, with hospitals in the U.S. facing nurse turnover rates climbing above 20% annually and total spending a staggering >$5 billion on temporary nursing staff from agencies, rethinking task distribution is one approach that could help to equalize workload and allow team members to focus on their most critical functions.
It is essential to be open-minded for healthcare to equalize workloads while successfully maintaining the quality of care.
Last week’s webinar drew an incredible number of attendees from the Nordic region, demonstrating the magnitude of the resource challenges and the need for productive dialog and debates. A few years ago, this topic may not have been well received. One silver lining from the pandemic is that change is possible, and it starts with rethinking.
A Practical and Operational Mindset
What can we take away from last week’s discussion? Here is a set of actionable initiatives that can move the needle:
- Enhanced Patient Care
Different countries have their terms and approaches, but at the core introducing roles like “Patient Care Technicians” to manage routine tasks can create time for nurses to address more complex patient care. Studies have shown that such approaches can increase patient satisfaction scores by more than 10%. These changes also contribute to overall nurse satisfaction. They find more enjoyment in their roles and value that the changes support competency requirements of nurses. Dossier had the pleasure over the last year of supporting similar efforts for pharmacies that sought to streamline the training and onboarding of pharmacy technicians. This was done in the U.S. via a joint venture with ASHP. - Boosted Staff Morale and Efficiency
Some organizations are introducing “Clinical Unit Coordinators” who ease administrative duties, which helps to reduce burnout among clinicians. Clinicians often know what to do and how to do it, but having access to Clinical Unit Coordinators who can assist and finish tasks can boost performance. This tactic has profoundly impacted nurse retention and even the total salary cost. - Promotion of Professional Development
Roles such as “Clinical Leaders” and “Subject Matter Experts” provide nurses and other clinical staff opportunities for professional growth, recognition and an engaging work environment. Organizations such as ANCC, ANPD, ASHP and ENA are great examples of leveraging the value of professional development to benefit employers, staff members and patients. Career development must be on the table to retain staff in the long run and sustain consistent, high-quality care. Without continuity and seniority the ability for highly needed optimization and advancement from task redefinitions become very slim. - Economic Benefits
Though new roles bring added payroll expenses, they will save hospitals money long term by reducing the reliance on temporary staffing agencies which come with high markup, and the cost of turnover due to burnout. When clinical staff aren’t tied up in administrative duties, they can focus on high-value tasks and use their competencies. It makes room for better pay, which is unavoidable with today’s inflation and increased costs of living. - AI and Augmented Operational Efficiency
We have to discuss the potential of technology in the future of healthcare. It is well known that too much time is spent filling out and managing healthcare paperwork. In rethinking task distribution, we need to consider work done by AI and other technology equivalent to work performed by humans. Filling out forms is a waste of human brain power and hands. At Dossier, we make and deliver a digital competency management platform that eliminates paper for educators, managers, and staff members. We promise to do whatever we can to use new technology to ease the work of healthcare staff.
The impact of AI and the future of work is on every executive’s lips. Key topics across all industries are which jobs will vanish and which will emerge. There are two sides of the equation. There needs to be value creating jobs available for people to make a living and the jobs available need to be attractive. The other side of the equation is that people must be adequately trained for their jobs. As the environment continues to shift, there needs to be a way to train people quickly. Competency starts with mastering a task. Decoding task proficiency into actionable training plans is key, and we, at Dossier are here to help!
- Enhanced Patient Care
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Healthcare is complex. While many industries have standards of practice for tasks performed, the complexities in healthcare make standardizing competencies challenging. Beyond the differences in medical history from patient to patient and the need for facilities, departments, and teams to have flexibility in how they operate day-to-day, other essential obstacles make standardizing healthcare competency management challenging, including:
- Diverse healthcare workforce: Healthcare involves many professions, including physicians, nurses, allied health professionals, and administrative staff. Each profession has its unique set of competencies, making it difficult to standardize across the entire workforce.
- Evolving healthcare practices: The healthcare field continuously evolves, with new technologies, treatments, and best practices constantly emerging. It can be tough to keep up with these changes and update competencies accordingly.
- Varied healthcare settings: Healthcare is delivered in various settings, including hospitals, clinics, long-term care facilities, and community-based organizations. Each care setting has its own unique set of competencies that must be considered when creating standardized competency plans.
- Regulatory and accreditation requirements: Different regulatory and accrediting bodies often have their own competency requirements that must be met. These requirements can be difficult to reconcile and may create inconsistencies in the standardization process.
- Stakeholder involvement: Standardizing healthcare competencies requires the involvement of various stakeholders, including healthcare professionals, educators, employers, and regulatory bodies. Coordinating these stakeholders and aligning their interests can be strenuous.
Because healthcare and patient needs are complex, it can be an obstacle to standardizing competencies. Plans must be flexible and meet the needs of the department, care team, and, most importantly, the patient. That’s why Dossier has created an all-in-one digital competency management platform that enables 100% visibility, supports end-to-end management, and provides an easy solution that keeps everyone in every department one step ahead. Learn more about how we can help your organization, schedule a quick demo.
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Contributor: Ryan Owens
PharmD, Editorial Director, Special Publishing American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP)
What we can do to reduce adverse drug events and medical errors.
Despite advancements in healthcare technology and medication safeguards, medical errors continue to occur at a high rate within health systems. A recent study by Bates et al published in the New England Journal of Medicine helped quantify the landscape of medication safety within inpatient sites.1 Bates and colleagues analyzed data from 11 Massachusetts hospitals and over 2,800 random admissions during 2018. Key findings of the study are noted in Figure 1 below.
The most common type of adverse event was an adverse drug event, followed closely by surgical or other procedural events. The authors also found that adverse events were higher among older patients and men. Event rates were noted to be higher among larger hospitals as well.
Figure 1: Key Findings
The study did have some limitations, such as a low population of Medicaid and uninsured patients and study sites limited to one geographic area, which could limit its applicability to other hospitals. However, it is one of the more comprehensive studies to critically examine adverse events from multiple sites as a follow-up to findings from the landmark Harvard Medical Practice Study in 1991.2
The findings of this study indicate that individual hospitals and the healthcare system at-large continue to have room for improvement regarding patient safety and delivery of care. The authors noted a few key elements are essential to help enhance safety standards within an organization and include:
Accurate and appropriate measurement of adverse events for organizations, which can often be complex to achieve, is an initial step to improving safety.
Appropriate safety culture
Dedicated leadership
Regular, ongoing competency training can help staff remain up to date in their knowledge and skills by educating on the latest guidelines and standards of care.
Given the implications to overall patient care, improving safety should be a top priority for organizations. While a multi-targeted approach for improvement should be included, one recommended avenue can be through continuous staff education and training. Regular, ongoing competency-based training can help staff remain up to date in their knowledge and skills by educating on the latest guidelines and standards of care. Examples of potential competency-based training topic areas are included in Figure 2.
Ensuring staff are competent in specific areas related to their roles and responsibilities can help elevate the care provided to patients. Competency-based training also allows staff to receive a refresher on fundamental topics and assimilate new knowledge on changes in treatment recommendations. Training can also be tailored to the specific practice area and individual needs of a staff member.
Figure 1: Competency-based Training Topics
A Whole New View On Competency
Competency-based training can be a valuable tool to not only help improve safety, but also provide continuous professional development for staff. The American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) have developed a full suite of digital competency trainings and assessments to manage and monitor competency completion among pharmacist and pharmacy technician staff. With Dossier’s robust competency platform and the power of ASHP’s Competency Assessment Centers content, you’ll have the perfect formula for a successful pharmacy.
To learn how ASHP’s Competency Assessment Centers content and Dossier’s competency management tool can help your organization, schedule a quick demo.
References
Bates DW, Levine DM, Salmasian H, et al. The safety of inpatient healthcare. N Engl J Med 2023; 388:142-153.
Brennan TA, Leape LL, Laird NM, et al. Incidence of adverse events and negligence in hospitalized patients — results of the Harvard Medical Practice Study I. N Engl J Med 1991;324:370-376.
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Competency-based training helps healthcare workers achieve the required outcomes for the particular tasks staff are asked to undertake. Competency develops throughout one’s career by way of education, skills training, and experience – but the current process is broken. And Dossier is here to help fix it.
The Healthcare Paper Problem
Quality is a critical element of the care journey. A competent, skilled, knowledgeable healthcare team delivers superior care. However, paper-based competency education and management create opportunities for duplication and make reporting on competency progress, especially across departments, virtually impossible. Additionally, because these blind spots in reporting exist, learners have to re-demonstrate competencies from one department to another due to a lack of inter-departmental transparency.
The Future of Healthcare: Digital Competency Management
Digitizing competency plans such as onboarding, orientation, sign-offs, etc., helps preceptors and healthcare staff work more efficiently and eliminates duplication.
Additionally, departments, facilities, and enterprises shifting to digital competency management can:
Reduce Variability in Care Delivery
Digitizing competencies helps to reduce variability in care delivery because the digital platform allows one plan to be shared with any individual, department, facility, or the entire health system. This consistency in training and development is essential for improving quality. Not only does this minimize the margin of error by way of variations in plans, but it also eliminates duplication of work – helping create more time for training and patients.
Improve Interdepartmental Transparency & Collaboration
A digital competency tool also allows departments to collaborate on plan development and updates, as well as monitor progress.
Scale with Ease
Shifting to digital competency management allows for best-in-class digital practices and provides hospitals and health systems with a scalable tool.
Improve Healthcare Workforce Readiness
Have confidence in knowing your team is ready to respond to any emergency situation at any time because plans can be created, updated, assigned, and shared with individuals, departments, facilities, or the entire enterprise in minutes.
Digitize Your Competency Plans
To maintain or improve quality and patient outcomes, digital competency-based training is necessary. Not only does it support healthcare organizations in the value-based care model, but it also helps to optimize resources and eliminate duplication of work. By digitizing and going paperless, healthcare workers are supported by a system that helps them provide optimum care.
To learn how Dossier’s all-in-one competency management tool can help your organization, schedule a quick demo.
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Healthcare organizations are adopting technologies to improve workflows, efficiency, and patient care, and staff are grateful. One area in need of digitization that would greatly benefit healthcare staff is competency management. Paper-based competency management is a drain on healthcare resources and is contributing to staff stress.
Addressing the Blind Spots in Competency Management
Did you know:
- 20% of the knowledge required by healthcare workers is captured in learning management systems, BUT
- 80% is captured on paper – skills, knowledge, judgment, and decision-making
Paper-based competencies create blind spots, impede reporting, and increase the likelihood of errors by way of missing or incomplete documentation.
Preceptors spend precious time chasing colleagues, binders, and paperwork trying to get an accurate view of progress. The problem is, paperwork is missing, checklist signoffs are incomplete, plans are outdated versions, and no one has the time to hunt down all of the documentation.
Thankfully, there’s a better, more efficient, and more effective way to manage competencies that healthcare staff appreciate.
A Digital Pathway to Improving Staff Satisfaction
Digitizing competency management with Dossier benefits every team member, because it allows for:
Updates to competency plans in real time – no more using personal time to update paperwork; users get a big-picture view of progress; this real-time information exchange allows team members to better manage what’s expected of them
- Better reporting and visibility of progress – real-time reporting for every individual, department, facility, and the whole health system means faster and more accurate data
- In-system reminders for those falling behind – no more chasing down colleagues
- An expedited process for competency management – creation, updates, and assignment of competency plans to people, departments, facilities, or your entire health system can be performed within minutes when you go paperless; no more printing and chasing binders and updates that can take a week or more
The benefits don’t end there. Going digital also helps healthcare workers:
- Get back to the work they love – investing in digital tools helps care teams work efficiently, allowing team members to create more time for patients, for training, or for themselves
- Simplify scheduling – those making schedules see learner progress which makes creating schedules a breeze
- Easily prepare for survey day – reporting to governing bodies becomes easier and less stressful because reports are fully customizable
- Improve the patient experience – while digitizing competencies doesn’t directly impact patients, they do experience benefits such as:
- Happier care team members
- More time with those assigned to their care
- More confident care team members
- Better care delivery
Staff Appreciate Digital Competency Management Tools
With all-in-one competency management tools, from Dossier, staff are empowered and in control of their learning. They see what is required of them at all times. Preceptors have an immediate view of progress. And leadership gains confidence in knowing there won’t be any surprises on survey day.
Patients have high expectations when it comes to the level of care they receive. If staff are hurriedly moving about and seem rushed, patients view the interaction negatively. By helping care teams work more efficiently, staff free up time, and can better meet their patients’ needs.
As healthcare workers continue to be overburdened and overwhelmed amid staffing shortages, equipping them with digital tools that improve efficiency and create more time in their day becomes increasingly important. Explore how Dossier can help your care team.
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Electronic health records were introduced to the U.S. healthcare system in the 1960s. For the first decade, they were mostly used by the government and large healthcare systems. By the 1980s, the software became more affordable, and adoption spread. By the 1990s, the technology could be found in most medical offices. The Internet age elevated the benefits of digital records. Today, EHRs are no longer considered a luxury; they are a medical necessity. The technology has transformed a heavily paper-based system into a paperless one – helping cut costs and improve productivity and efficiency.
The digital age of healthcare has followed three phases:
- Building infrastructure – digitizing patient records
- Interoperability – allowing two or more systems to exchange health information and use the information once it is received
- Cloud-based systems – making medical record-sharing easier and safer, automating backend operations, facilitating the creation and maintenance of telehealth apps, increasing the efficiency of the healthcare industry, and decreasing costs, as well as improving data usage to leverage AI, advancing research, and more.
Cloud-Based Systems + Digitizing Competency Management
Cloud-based systems allow for continuous improvement. For example, patient data can indicate there are opportunities for improvement within a certain procedure. When that data are digitized and accessible, quality can be monitored more closely, and data can be leveraged to improve outcomes and the patient experience.
Digital tools offer numerous benefits to healthcare organizations, the greatest of which are reducing costs and improving healthcare staff productivity. Like with EHRs, digitizing antiquated processes, such as orientation, onboarding, annual mandatories, skills checkoffs, and more, provides a ripple effect – staff become happier, updates become easier, competency tracking is faster, and waste is eliminated.
For those digitizing competency management, Dossier offers:
- Immediate ROI due to eliminated waste and optimizing resources such as time, money, and talent
- Quick, easy implementation in weeks – not months or years
- A dedicated Dossier team member to support you throughout the onboarding process
- Ability to maximize ROI from already acquired learning assets, such as LMS, simulators, procedures, and knowledge databases
The Digital ROI
Unlike the massive financial commitment required by an EHR migration, transitioning to digital competency management comes at a much lower price point. Plus, the return on investment for digitizing competencies begins on day one due to eliminating paper, binders, and storage and improving worker efficiency. When multiple departments use a cloud-based digital competency management platform, savings are compounded.
Implement in Weeks – Not Months or Years
Many software implementation timelines can take 18 months or more because of extensive requirements gathering, systems integration challenges, security concerns, attrition – the list goes on. A cloud-based competency platform, like Dossier, takes the implementation timeline from months or years down to weeks.
There are numerous benefits of using cloud-based systems, including:
- Accessibility – It’s available to staff anywhere at any time.
- Cost Savings – On average, our customers realize immediate cost savings of more than 10x within months of digitizing competencies.
- Insight – Because Dossier connects to your learning systems and activities, you get a better, more comprehensive view of your data and can report on learner progress.
- Increase collaboration – Improved accessibility means preceptors can better manage and engage with those they are training.
- Quality control – It eliminates competency plan duplication or potential differences in competency plans by the department.
- Loss prevention – No more missing binders or misplaced checklists; data lives in the cloud in real-time.
- Automatic software updates – When the system is updated, you gain immediate access to improvements; no more coordinating with internal resources or disruptive downtime.
- Improved staff and patient satisfaction – When staff is properly trained, they deliver better care, and the patient experience improves. When they have access to digital tools that allow them to manage their training and days better, they are happier.
- Scalable and sustainable – Binders require storage space, which isn’t sustainable as hospitals’ needs change. Cloud-based competency management scales easily, a great asset to hospitals undergoing mergers and acquisitions. As part of the M&A due diligence, cloud-based competency management can ensure all individuals, departments, and facilities receive the appropriate competencies.
- Better in-house resource management – As a cloud-based system, your IT team doesn’t need to create bandwidth for a system install. No need to worry about system integrations or security gaps.
A Dedicated Team Member
With Dossier, the resource lift on the customer side is minimized. How? A dedicated Customer Success Manager is assigned to each Dossier engagement. The CSM is responsible for helping clients onboard. All of Dossier’s CSMs have worked or are currently working as nurses in hospitals. Their experience in the field helps ensure customers’ competency plans are set up correctly from day one, and it expedites implementation and onboarding.
Having a dedicated CSM accomplishes three goals:
- Expedites creation of the competency plans
- Gets customer teams in and using the digital platform more quickly
- Generates additional customer savings on day one
Maximize the ROI from Healthcare Learning Activities and Systems
Hospitals and health systems typically have several learning systems that capture data about learner activities. Dossier easily connects to learning systems, adding significant value to current investments while providing visibility and reporting capabilities.
Go Digital with Dossier
Shifting to digital drives immediate savings by eliminating paper, binders, and storage space. Add to that the time saved by improving operational efficiencies, and you can see how the return on investment begins on day one. When cloud-based systems are rolled out across multiple departments and facilities, the savings are immediately compounded.
In an age when healthcare organizations are struggling to contain revenue, delaying digitization becomes a harder argument to make. If you are curious about how much your organization could save, check out our Competency Calculator.
If you are interested in learning more, download Dossier’s Guide to Digital Competency Management.
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Why Healthcare Should Ban Competency Management Binders
Healthcare providers spend considerable time trying to reduce variability in how healthcare is practiced. The goal is to improve the quality of care and patient outcomes. One area of opportunity lies in competency management and shifting to digital.
The challenge: How can healthcare workers successfully reduce variability when competency management continues to be a paper-based process with significant duplication, growing waste, and opportunities for error by way of missing or incomplete documentation?
Healthcare workers are asked to raise the ‘quality’ bar but are not provided the tools they need to do so successfully.
We at Dossier know the importance of digital transformation in healthcare. We’ve experienced the benefits of electronic medical records. However, digital tools that would help healthcare workers meet, if not exceed, their competency requirements are deprioritized, which is surprising because the return on such investments is immediate.
Competency tracking is currently done on paper and housed in three-ring binders. Binders that are shoved in lockers or tote bags across facilities and taken home. This makes updates and reporting time-consuming, stressful, and error-prone – on the best days. There are countless opportunities for these critical documents to be lost, misplaced, or incomplete.
Digital Competency Management: An Immediate Return on Investment
The current process for competency management is a massive resource drain. Time, money, space, and, most important, talent are all wasted. With our competency management software, you can help your facility be as organized and productive as possible.
Signs you need to go paperless:-
Staff are frustrated.
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Preceptors are wasting time that could be spent on training or with patients.
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Leadership can’t access information in a timely manner.
It’s time to invest in digital tools that empower staff and enable them to work more efficiently.
It’s time to ban the binders.
Benefits of Digital Competency Management
“We need things to get easier” is a comment we often hear from healthcare leadership and care team members. Going digital accomplishes that and so much more. Shifting from paper to a digital competency management platform:
- Reduces the variability in the healthcare workforce
- Helps teams deliver exceptional quality and outcomes
- Provides reassurance when scheduling and assigning floating staff
- Allows individuals to see what’s expected of them and self-manage their progress
- Eliminates waste, including paper, binders, storage area
- Eliminates duplication and streamlines paperwork – one system for all documentation and reporting
- Minimizes errors because data is captured at the point of care electronically
- Provides immediate access to real-time data from any device at any time
- Helps manage those falling behind by way of in-system reminders
- Improves efficiencies because every person can see what’s expected of them, and sign-offs become easier and more timely
Going digital helps healthcare organizations and health systems improve their performance on the competency spectrum. Everyone improves when data is available in real-time and staff can immediately see when they are falling behind.
If you’re ready to see what your team could be saving by choosing Dossier’s competency management software, give our Competency Calculator a try or book a 15-minute demo to see the platform in action.
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I am fortunate to meet and work with some really smart and admirable healthcare executives. I recently had the opportunity to speak with one such individual – someone I consider to be very strategic and forward-thinking. We discussed the outlook for 2023. Her priorities and outlook align very well with what we also see at Dossier and with our customers.
There is no doubt that there is a shift occurring in healthcare.
But what are we shifting to?
During the pandemic, we began speaking about ‘the new normal.’ It turned out that the new normal is everything but normal. We’re facing a shifting macro economy, global staff shortages in healthcare, budget constraints, a tripledemic (RSV, flu and COVID – at least for a while) to name just a few of our current obstacles.
The Biggest Healthcare Challenge in 2023
How do we respond and stay agile while learning, improving and staying one step ahead?
Here are four key takeaways from our conversation that I think could be the baseline strategy for a lot of organizations over the next year. If executed properly, they can help combat soaring costs, ease resource pressures and help you better navigate the uncharted waters of the new normal.
Shared Insights: Four Priorities for Organizational Success in Healthcare
- Put quality of care and patient safety as priority number one. That sounds easy, but it means empowering employees to master their professions by having the confidence, focus, and capabilities they need. Now more than ever, leaders need to nurture their teams by being supportive and encouraging focus. 2023 will be the year of core business, removing hurdles, and giving team members the autonomy to focus.
- Digitize at a faster pace so teams can maximize their resources. While digital transformations are occurring in healthcare, the pace at which these transformations are happening needs to escalate. Team members need to modernize how they work, and they can’t do that without digital tools. Everything from virtual care to removing papers and cutting corners by reusing data has accelerated to a speed we never thought possible in the healthcare industry. We cannot slow down. These technology investments need to continue. Incremental improvements have proven to be superior to large-scale tech projects. Organizations need to maintain efforts to modernize their healthcare organizations. Breaking down digital projects into sprints and measuring the ROI of those can be helpful.
- Maximize the value of the tools currently available. We hear a lot of hospitals having thousands of different systems. These system investments can – and should – be maximized. At Dossier, many of our customers have a lot of great systems and resources for learning and professional development. Let 2023 be the year we connect systems to maximize the use and ROI of digital portfolios.
- Celebrate and share successes! All organizations have success stories. Improvements have been made, teams are working smarter – helping the organization move forward. All these activities yield positive outcomes. Those stories should be shared – put them in the spotlight. Doing so is the most cost-effective, fastest, and most powerful way to demonstrate to your staff that you are willing to invest in their needs. It boosts morale, which helps you build a strong team in a challenging time!
Bring it on, 2023! We are ready!
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