Save on training costs with low-cost online education
Save on training costs with low-cost online education
Method is more convenient for staff
Training and education costs often are the first items on the chopping block when it's time for budget cuts. By offering education online, costs can be cut while quality is maintained.
Pam Carlisle, CHAM, corporate director of patient access services and revenue cycle administration at Columbus-based Ohio Health, says that "staff education and training has not been the target of any of our re-alignment plans. Our training and education department is critical to the overall success of our clean claim rate, and in turn, the bottom line."
Carlisle adds that her department is, however, "doing more with less. We are working smarter, not harder, as the saying goes."
One way the patient access department is doing this is by switching to online education, to replace some of its in-person classroom instruction. "We have really tried to put a lot of our education online for our staff to take at their convenience," says Carlisle. "This is more convenient for staff and gives management a way to track results and monitor competency scores."
Staff are offered online training for systems as well as processes. "Many people were skeptical of online system training in the beginning," Carlisle acknowledges. "But the more they use it, the more they are becoming believers."
The system training walks users through each step of the new system. Next, it requires them to do test patients in the system for practice, and take a competency exam. Staff can do this as many times as they like, to refresh their memory.
"We have posted critical pieces of the registration process online for them to test on annually," says Carlisle. These include education on how to complete a consent, what is an Advance Beneficiary Notice of Noncoverage, and how privacy laws affect registration. The department is working on a new posting for Medicare Secondary Payer education.
However, Carlisle says that the classroom setting has not disappeared entirely. All new hires and staff with low-quality scores receive classroom training, and classroom training is done on hot topics as they arise.
"There is so much to keep the frontline sharp on; there is not enough staff or hours to cover your team while they are out to train," says Carlisle. "By offering these refreshers online, they can complete them anytime. The end results will be a better-educated staff updated on the latest changes, efficient tracking of courses, and competency tests to ensure the material is digested. This is a winning combination for the mountain of knowledge to absorb."
[For more information, contact:
- Pam Carlisle, CHAM, Corporate Director, Patient Access Services and Revenue Cycle Administration, Ohio Health, Columbus, OH. Phone: (614) 544-6099. E-mail: [email protected].]
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