
Another year has come and gone, along with it a year’s worth of fascinating webinars! So, while the year may be coming to an end, rather than say goodbye so quickly, we’re looking back to share some of our favorite webinars we hosted this year. Best yet, each and every one of these is chalked full of winning strategies that will surely make for some great listening material over the holidays–hot cocoa not included.
Your hospital deals with hundreds—maybe thousands—of contract workers, and third-party vendors, which is pretty impressive. You know as well as we do just how vital every vendor is to ensure your organization runs smoothly. But, the more manpower that comes onboard comes great risk as well. This is why it is vital, not only for the safety of your patients but your entire organization, to assess third-party vendors, and contract workers for any associated risks in terms of background or status from the beginning and beyond. Doing so can save your organization millions in legal fees and fines. But how do you minimize the risk?
When it comes to setting your organization up for success, it’s important to have visibility into your policies and procedures. Without the ability to track whether a policy has been reviewed, approved or implemented makes meeting regulatory compliance difficult. What is needed in such an instance is an automated workflow where policies can be posted for everyone to review and then have it be pushed down to the local facility using a standard circulation process.
When Mountain States Health Alliances discovered interoperable functionality between their policy management and evidence-based procedure solutions it led to enhanced productivity, technology adoption, and patient safety. A result of streamlining the two programs, this allowed staff to access the required documents more efficiently. More notably, the ability to link documents such as in the EMR, plans of care, and physician order entry have provided management with the piece of mind in knowing that they can point staff to all the necessary information needed to increase competency.
In 2009 as Larkin Hospital committed themselves to becoming an education first organization, they began to build, grow and expand their main campus. In increasing their reach in the healthcare field they found themselves under a bombardment of accreditor and surveyor inspections. To overcome the stress of the sudden influx of inspections, they soon found that automation was the key to healthcare accreditation success–here’s why.
1. Improving Operational Excellence and Driving Value
In an age of healthcare where hospitals are struggling with rising costs and changing reimbursement structures, incremental fixes have been introduced, including attacking fraud, reducing errors, and even a move towards population health to tackle the problem. However, much of these strategies have not made the impact that was expected of them. Add to that the pressure for data transparency, new technology, and evolving regulations organizations have been forced to look at their operations, leverage the resources they have, and automating where they can to maximize efficiencies. In some cases, hospitals have found that shifting focus to the patient by moving towards a value-based care structure, has provided a strong starting point for minimizing costs.
For more on a great year, check out our Top 5 Healthcare Blogs!