Is your team as prepared as they should be?

By Susan Saldibar

If you’re scratching your head wondering what “incidents” and “injections” have in common, consider this. Reducing the number of incidents each month and certifying your nurses on new injection methods are two important goals. What do they have in common? Both rely on two important things: real time communications and instant access to training and education. Today, in our web-enabled, mobile “instant messaging” world, the communication of key information is faster, more unified and easier to track. And it can have a dramatic impact on your senior living community.

I sat down with Judy Finn, Director of Marketing for iTacit Healthcare, who shared with us how two critical factors: 1) real time communications and 2) instant accessibility to training and education can measurably impact operational efficiency. In this case, to reduce incidents and ensure nurse certification.

Challenge #1: Too Many Incidents

This is a major area of concern as it opens up a senior living community to serious consequences and liability issues. Currently 60% of staff members are likely to be involved in a workplace incident each year. That’s a scary number.

The Tasks:

  • Training in each of the following areas: WHMIS, Fire Safety, Fall Prevention, Body Mechanics, and Resident Transfers.

  • Coordination and communication between all team members and management

The People:

  • Housekeeping staff

  • Laundry staff

  • Maintenance staff

The Challenge:

  • Reduce the number of staff incidents in the facility.

The Solution:

  • Enroll staff members in safety credentialing programs for: WHMIS, Fire Safety, Fall Prevention, Body Mechanics, and Resident Transfers

  • Enable monitoring of progress and individual performance by Director of Environmental Services

  • Allow training to be completed at home or during break times to accommodate different shifts

  • Keep all team members, supervisors, and the director in contact with each other, across shifts

  • Establish real time communications between director and team

The Result:

  • Entire department completed the program’s training requirements on time

  • Employees completed their training at their convenience

  • Director was able to monitor the program in real time, 24/7

  • Director now has a record of credentialing

  • Program established as a mandatory annual in-service, setting a high standard of competency for their staff

  • Number of Incidents reduced

Challenge #2: Injection Re-Certification

It’s absolutely critical that changes in procedures be communicated promptly and to all key staff members. Equally important is providing training quickly, effectively and in a way all staff members can participate on their terms.

The Task:

  • Training in butterfly injections

  • Re-certification

The People:

  • Resident care staff

  • Supervisors

The Challenge:

  • 100% of all resident care staff needed to be re-certified within days to meet the requirements of a new policy and set of procedures.

The Solution:

  • Create concise training video

  • Package video with updated policy/procedure documentation

  • Make short on-line, in-service course available 24/7 to accommodate staff shifts

  • Enroll all resident care staff

  • Monitor training progress to ensure deadline met

The Result:

  • Training completed for all staff members in 2 days

  • Zero disruption to care levels and staff schedules

  • 50 nurses 100% re-certified

  • Improved quality of care in a focused area

  • Immediate quality of care reporting to outside agencies.

“It’s not always the processes which are at fault,” says Judy. “It’s the coordination of the team, instant accessibility to key information online, and keeping people in the loop in real time,” she adds.

It goes without saying that beneath both of these examples is a strong workforce management platform to support communication and access to information. And that, by the way, is where iTacit excels. For more information on how iTacit’s workforce management technology impacts operational efficiency visit them on their website.