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How an LMS for healthcare improves compliance training

The healthcare industry may be the most risk-heavy and compliance-intensive sector of the economy. With the potential for life-changing impact on patients and the need to manage sensitive patient data—the stakes don't get much higher. Regulations cover everything from equipment and facilities to processes and supplies. Adding to the compliance challenge: Everyone from radiologists to IT people must have certifications.

The costs of non-compliance in healthcare are high, given the threats to life and health that can occur when compliance is faulty. In 2017 alone, $19.4 million in HIPAA fines were collected by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; in October 2018, Anthem agreed to pay $16 million in fines following potential HIPAA violations caused by cyber attacks– the largest such penalty ever assessed.

Healthcare HR departments must meet compliance challenges with tools that offer streamlined, trackable methods for delivering the necessary learning—and ensuring that staff obtain the required certifications. Here's how a Learning Management System (LMS) for healthcare can help reduce the administrative burden, centralize learning materials and improve tracking of data.

Reducing the Administrative Burden of Healthcare Compliance

The admin tasks associated with compliance can take time away from other healthcare HR initiatives. An LMS for healthcare can eliminate misalignment of compliance programs by centralizing compliance management into one interface. And with the ability to incorporate multiple divisions, locations and languages, the LMS can be scaled to suit organizations of any size or complexity.

An LMS compliance solution can manage things like testing, training, simplifying the tasks of certification administration, skills assessment, and talent management. In addition, through the LMS, compliance content can combine with other types of learning for employees – for example, training for onboarding, best practices or certification renewal. In this way, HR teams can create a “one-stop shop" for all learning opportunities. Employees only need to visit a single location for professional development, mandatory training, or resources on everything from how to use new equipment or perform a bedside procedure.

Ensuring Employees Are Up to Date With Compliance Training

Learning content often comes from sources outside the healthcare organization. With an LMS for healthcare, HR teams can acquire and manage content from many sources, and manage versions so that content automatically reflects new information, rules and deadlines. This is a key benefit for compliance: With a feature like Content Anytime from Cornerstone, HR teams don't have to worry that compliance content is incomplete our outdated.

For positions and certifications needing observational testing and assessment, HR teams can deploy observational checklists within an LMS. These checklists can help verify task completion, provide feedback, and assess competency levels. In addition, since an LMS has an on-demand, app-based interface, healthcare compliance training can be integrated into the workday for better engagement and more timely completion.

To help keep track of individual, group or company compliance status, an LMS can assemble user profiles with detailed information about progress on compliance training. Using the profiles and other tools, HR team can use this information to manage certifications, track individual or group progress, and make assessments about company compliance performance.

Always Being Audit-Ready

Being ready for audits means having tracking data easily at hand – especially since healthcare compliance requires reporting to a dizzying array of government and industry regulatory bodies. An LMS for healthcare can combine the ability to gather, manage, and analyze data on just about every aspect of healthcare compliance training with tools specifically designed to produce reports and datasets required by each regulatory agency. With this capability, HR can feel audit-ready at any time.

Want to improve compliance while streamlining HR operations? Cornerstone for Healthcare provides a comprehensive suite of compliance solutions for healthcare organizations.

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