Hospital Training Accelerates Quality Improvement: White Paper
The U.S. healthcare system has been engaged in significant quality-focused activity over the last decade, as hospitals responded to numerous mandates aimed at improving patient outcomes and safety. The healthcare quality movement began in earnest with The Institute of Medicine (IOM) Report “To Err is Human,” which highlighted the high number of medical errors occurring in U.S. hospitals. Now 2010’s Affordable Care Act is motivating and requiring hospitals to pursue new and focused methods of shoring up gaps as the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and private insurers start to make serious inroads on tying quality and patient safety outcomes to reimbursement. Hospitals are taking this latest reform move seriously. In a recent HealthLeaders Media survey of 244 healthcare leaders, more than 90 percent said not only is patient safety one of their top five priorities, it is “an integral part of their organization’s strategic plan.”
High-Performing Hospitals Make Education a Priority 
With so much at stake, how can hospitals move the quality needle in a meaningful direction? While most healthcare organizations already have a quality agenda, getting specific initiatives to cascade down to frontline staff continues to be a challenge. Increasing evidence shows, however, that hospitals are driving quality and patient safety improvements through exceptional education programs. In fact, these high performers share one common habit: they consistently count workforce education and training initiatives among their organization’s highest goals. A 2007 Commonwealth Fund report on hospital quality improvement strategies found that those organizations consistently raising quality of care have deployed improved educational and training materials for clinical staff in key quality areas, including error reduction, hand-washing, and infection prevention. Yet another survey reviewing quality improvement trends across 470 organizations several years after the IOM report found that those “hospitals with high levels of perceived quality … fostered staff training and involvement in QI methods.”
Training Can Lead to Powerful Hospital Improvements
Hospital learning programs that are tied to organizational quality goals and aimed at physicians--physician assistants, nurse, allied staff, and frontline workers--may result in improved patient outcomes in key areas such as mortality, readmission, and infection rates. They also may lead to highly engaged and satisfied employees; stronger physician alignment; improved patient satisfaction; and ultimately higher reimbursement.
This white paper includes:
- The Urgent Need for Innovative Training Programs
- Four Key Trends Impacting Workforce Learning
- Nurse Education and the Widespread Benefits of High-Impact Training
- Creating Targeted Learning
- Case Study: Capella Healthcare
- Case Study: Portneuf Medical Center
- Preparing for the Future, Using Training
Download the White Paper.