Chief Learning Officer - November 2007 - (Page 63)

case study At each location, they’d get everybody (ranging from three to 500 people) in an assembly room and demonstrate the new process on a stage for a couple of hours. A few weeks later, the process would go live, and employees would struggle to remember what they’d seen once but never practiced at all. Then, the process would start anew at the next facility. There had to be a better way and today, there is. Through a blended approach, Ascension Health now coordinates learning across its 67 hospitals in 20 states. The health system’s learning program still uses traditional, instructor-led classrooms where that format makes sense. Now, though, these classes are mixed in with online courses, in synchronous and asynchronous formats, and backed by an online resource library, as well as sophisticated testing and tracking. In the last five years, Ascension Health staffers have completed and tracked more than 3.5 million learning activities online, which never would have been possible the way things used to be. Ascension Health’s 130,000 employees and affiliated clinicians have fundamentally changed the way they share best practices, clinical information, implementation strategies and more. Ascension Health. That platform, known as the managed learning environment (MLE), allows collaboration among clinical leaders on design and implementation of best practices courses, launches and tracks learning programs based on these new protocols, and assesses and measures all organizational learning. Ascension Health has been able to integrate content developed by staff around the country with content purchased from multiple sources, including MC Strategies, HealthStream and The Catholic Health Association. The MLE allows access to learners while maintaining site-specific licensing agreements across 29 ministries. As Ascension Health continues its journey toward its ambitious goals, success stories that involve learning are emerging throughout the system. Momentum in Clinical Excellence Genesys Health System, based in Grand Blanc, Mich., has been a source of exciting new developments in patient care. Using the MLE as their platform, doctors have worked with Gradepoint to translate new procedures into powerful online classes that are being shared throughout the Ascension Health network. Two of the classes cover advances in the identification and protocols for neonatal infant pain and a review of the best practices for ossiculoplasty. The neonatal infant pain course used to be instructor-led, and it was limited by resources and its geographic reach. Now, the course has been enabled on the Web, so anyone in the Ascension Health network can access it at their convenience. “By Web-enabling this content, we’re reaching a much broader audience to discuss the common myths of infant pain, the causes and impacts of pain and the appropriate treatment strategies. This course has actual video and audio of infants for learner diagnosis,” said Jenny Copeland, Genesys Health nurse educator. “The best practices at Genesys Health in Grand Blanc have been leveraged in our sister hospitals as far away as Arizona, Texas and New York. My staff and I can spend more focus on the infants and less time in an instructor-led classroom.” There’s even an opportunity to demonstrate national leadership on these advances in care. Genesys is exploring marketing the courses across the country as a new source of revenue — staff at facilities outside Ascension Health might be able to take the courses as part of their annual continuing education credit requirements. Progress Toward an Ambitious Goal Ascension Health’s progress with its enterprise learning program has been a boon to the organization. That’s especially true in light of its ambitious strategic direction, which calls for health care that works, is safe and leaves no one behind. As part of that mission, Ascension Health set a challenging goal: have no preventable injuries or deaths by July 2008. It’s a sweeping effort at clinical transformation that affects all hospitals and related health facilities within Ascension Health. Areas that must be addressed include culture, infrastructure and collaboration. The organization identified eight priorities for action, including preventable mortality and areas such as adverse drug events, falls and surgical complications. “Alpha” sites in the system are developing the best clinical and implementation practices. They’re also responsible for training the rest of the organization. Enterprise learning is playing a vital role in Ascension Health’s quest, enabled by a platform that incorporates SumTotal’s learning management system, which Gradepoint Enterprise Learning has configured for Ascension Health’s progress with its enterprise learning program has been a boon to the organization. That’s especially true in light of its ambitious strategic direction, which calls for health care that works, is safe and leaves no one behind. 63 November 2007 I www.clomedia.com I Chief Learning Officer http://www.clomedia.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Chief Learning Officer - November 2007

Chief Learning Officer - November 2007 Editor's Letter Table of Contents Imperatives Selling Up, Selling Down Strategies Take Five Rediscovering the Essence of Learning Cornell University Maintains Productivity While Pursuing Higher Education CLO Profile How Loyalty and Employee Engagement Add Up to Corporate Profits A Strategic Foundation The Evolution of the LMS Ariba: Growing Sales Skills in Conjunction with LMS Technology Leveraging Change to Build Productivity Equinox Fitness: Leveraging Change to Build Productivity Tangibles or Intangibles: Where’s Your Value? Raising the Stakes: The Strategic Role of the CLO Case Study Business Intelligence Case Study Advertisers' Index Editorial Resources In Conclusion

Chief Learning Officer - November 2007

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.