Instructional Technology/Learning Management Systems/Learning Management Systems in Healthcare

Learning Management Systems in the Healthcare Environment
Education in the healthcare environment is essential to produce quality well-trained employees. In the past, classroom training in a face-to-face environment was the main way that employees were provided their initial and ongoing training needed to perform their job responsibilities. This required the employees to be away from their work environment, whether that be providing patient care or working in an administrative or clerical position, for a period of time. This meant that their duties were either not being done during that time or another employee would have to pick up the additional responsibilities. All of this causes an increase in costs for the corporation as well as potential safety issues if the employee is providing patient care. A learning management system can help alleviate some of the problems that hospitals face in the traditional classroom training environment.

Regulatory Agency Requirements
Implementing a learning management system, while initially can be a costly investment, over time can prove to be a well spent investment. More and more hospitals are required to provide mandatory yearly education to their employees due to regulatory agency requirements. Examples of some of the regulatory agencies that put demands on healthcare include, but are not limited to:

Regulatory Agencies:
 * [[w:Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services|CMS]
 * [http://www.jointcommission.org/ The Joint Commission
 * MPRO

CMS, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is a federally funded program that is concerned, like most other regulatory agencies with the quality of healthcare being provided to the beneficiaries of medicare and medicaid. They are involved in many programs that look at quality and confidentiality such as HIPPA, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, is one example of a regulation mandated by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. HIPPA is related to insurance coverage for individuals as well as confidentiality compliance that must be followed by hospitals as well as many other healthcare businesses such as physician offices, insurance companies, etc. Hospitals must provide education to their employees on how to handle electronically printed medical information about patients.

Another regulatory agency that puts demands on hospitals as far as educating their employees is The Joint Commission. The Joint Commission. JCAHO provides accreditation to healthcare facilities following a site visit and review of the institution. The Joint Commission is concerned with the care provided to patients. A current initiative of the Joint Commission is patient safety. A LMS can provide education about patient safety, initiatives the hospital is instituting to assist in patient safety and what healthcare providers can do to provide safe care to their patients.

MPRO is a state of Michigan based organization that looks at healthcare quality and ways for healthcare institutions to improve care to their patients. Based on their reviews of a hospitals services they may offer suggestions for ways to improve processes that are used in the healthcare environment. A LMS is a way to provide education to healthcare providers on how to utilize the information and suggestions made by MPRO to improve the delivery of care to their patients.

Continuing Education Requirements
According to ACGME's,Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education website; ACGME “is a private, non-profit council that evaluates and accredits medical residency programs in the United States. The mission of the ACGME is to improve the quality of health care in the United States by ensuring and improving the quality of graduate medical education for physicians in training.” Reference citation Medical residents are required to obtain a certain amount of hours worked in a teaching hospital as well as continuing medical education requirements. Physicians are also required to obtain continuing medical education credits every three years while they are in practice, in order to maintain their licensure. Each state varies as to what those requirements are. Registered nurses are also required to obtain continuing education contact hours every two years to maintain their license. This number also varies by state and may have specific requirements as to the type or content of contact hours that must be obtained. A learning management system can be used to offer courses to both physicians and nurses as well as any other category of staff that require continuing education for licensure. The LMS can also be used to track whether or not staff have the met licensure requirements

Benefits for a Healthcare Environment
For example, a large teaching hospital located in a suburb of Detroitis a 1,061 bed hospital that has approximately 13,000 employees. Based on the type of employee, there are required yearly educational programs/material that must be mastered. Many of these requirements are mandated by the outside regulatory agencies described above. Some examples of the courses are:
 * Patient Confidentiality
 * Electrical Safety
 * Fire Safety
 * Corporate Compliance
 * Emergency Management

In order for a hospital of this size to maintain records of completion and mastery of the required course/information, a LMS is an invaluable tool. It provides the hospital with an easy way to track all employee records and provide the regulatory agencies with proof of compliance.

Benefits also include:
 * Reduction of scheduling personnel to attend training programs.
 * Delivery of training anytime – day or night.
 * Access to training at home or on the job.
 * Consistent content delivery.
 * Opportunities for the EMS system to provide updated information to EMS practitioners.

Simple and easy to use. The LMS has the capability to track overall user progress, evaluate program content, score tests, and create certificates. In addition to the course content there can be:
 * An information library
 * Course tests
 * Program content surveys

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