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THE BIG PICTURE: Improving Business Processes and
Accountability
For time in memoriam, healthcare organizations have
conducted annual “skills fairs” to assure the competency of staff at required
tasks. There are two major problems with
this approach: (1) completing these
tasks, say starting an IV in a skills lab, is a poor measure of actual competency in the clinical setting; and,
(2) staff must be replaced when they are off the patient
care unit at a skills fair.
The replacement cost of staff is often not included when
evaluating the cost-effectiveness of skills fairs.
Implementation of web-based competency checklists, like Decision Critical's
Critical Check Lists, in the clinical setting
should be considered to improve the quality of competency evaluation and decrease the associated cost. In this edition we spotlight Critical
Check Lists in the Product Spotlight section and Tech Talk focuses on a recent user-requested functionality
addition. Decision Critical has much planned for the remainder of the
year, including at least one more edition of Critical Communication! We will be back with another edition of Critical
Communication in the Fall – until then we wish you all a beautiful summer.
Yours in Nursing,
Kenneth W. Dion, RN, MSN, MBA
CEO, Decision Critical, Inc.
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CRITICAL PARTNER SPOTLIGHT: Texas Children's
Hospital
This month, Critical
Communication spoke with Jana Chvatal, Coordinator of Privacy Practices at Texas Children's Hospital. Texas Children's
Hospital has been a Decision Critical client since 2003.
When did you first begin working with Decision
Critical?
In 2003. We used Decision Critical’s
Education Data Repository (EDR) to complete our initial HIPAA training. We had it up and running in 45 days.
What Decision Critical products does your organization
use?
The EDR.
Why did you choose Decision Critical?
The EDR was content neutral, was user-friendly and as an ASP
delivery model [web-based], we were able to implement it in a very short amount of time.
How have your experiences been with Decision
Critical’s customer services?
It is outstanding. The few issues we have had
have been addressed immediately, with great communication while the issue was being resolved.
Anything else you would like to
add?
In today’s world of compliance and training requirements,
Decision Critical EDR product’s ease of use has allowed us to focus on the content of the training instead of the delivery and tracking of the
training.
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CRITICAL PRODUCT: Critical Check Lists™
What are Critical Check Lists™?
Critical Check Lists are web-based, organized Competency Check Lists used to enable healthcare
organizations to automate the management and monitoring of staffing competencies. Critical Check Lists are hosted online and integrate and
apply academic, clinical, and in some cases business, competencies.
This web-based solution enables you to obtain and maintain specific skills that make you and
your organization successful. With Critical Check Lists your professional environment is set up so you can achieve consitent success through a comprehensive and
standardized process of knowledge
and congnitive performance tracking.
What is Included in
Your Critical Check Lists™?
- Each employee is presented
with a personal competency plan that can include required skills, competencies, licenses and certifications;
- Completed skills are
"rolled-up" providing an "at-a-glance" view of uncompleted competencies;
- Critical Check Lists allow
for both self-assessed and observed competency activities;
- Automated email reminders
are sent for pending expirations and noncompliant requirements;
- Produce competency
compliance reports at the touch of a mouse; and,
- The Critical Check Lists
can be implemented as a stand-alone solution or in conjunction with Decision Critical's Education Data Repository (EDR).
Why Are Critical
Check Lists™ Important?
The needs of healthcare are
ever-changing. Addressing staffing compliance has become vital, but with diminishing resources and time it is necessary to work more
efficiently than ever before. With Critical Check Lists™ you are able to:
- Streamline old processes
with a new, easy to use, online solution;
- Assure the evaluation of
every step involved in demonstrating mastery of each competency; and,
- Manage licenses and
certifications as a part of an overall competency management program.
Who Is Interested In Critical Check
Lists™?
Critical Check Lists benefit both you and your
organization. You, the staff member, are able to easily
manage your license and certification verifications as part
of your overall competency plan. Organizations are able to eliminate existing cumbersome paper-based processes with
on-line, customizable skills checklists tailored their standards and procedures.
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TECH TALK: New User-Requested Functionality Now
Available in Critical Check Lists
You've been talking and we've been listening!
Recently, the technical team at Decision Critical received feedback from
hospital educators that they have a lot of checklists and they were finding it exceedingly difficult to keep them organized. In
order to help address this issue, we were asked to consider adding competency groups as a way to further organize these check lists.
Groups would be used to organize the checklist competencies by body system, clinical specialty or unit.
We are pleased to announce that these groups have been added and are now a
component of our Critical Check Lists solution. Critical Check Lists users can now create their own groups and then choose a group
for each competency.
Tech Talk will cover our user's tips, frequently asked questions,
suggestions and product updates in each edition. We welcome your thoughts, questions and ideas on areas we should cover in future editions
of Critical Communication.
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NEWS Children's National Medical Center Successfully Implements Critical
Portfolio
View Press Release
Decision Critical CEO,
Kenneth W. Dion, RN, was recently elected to serve as the
Treasurer of the Foundation of
the Nation Student Nurses Association
Decision Critical's Critical Portfolio Highlighted in Notes for Nursing - "AONE Product Preview: Web-based Portfolio Management Solution" View
Article
EVENTS
You are invited to visit Decision Critical at one of the following upcoming events that we will be
attending either as a sponsor or exhibitor:
- National Nursing Staff Development Organization (NNSDO) 2007
Convention:July 26 - 29, 2007; Sheraton Atlanta
Hotel, Atlanta, Georgia. Decision Critical Booth #320.
- Nursing Management Congress 2007: September 16 - 19, 2007; Hyatt Regency Chicago,
Chicago, Illinois.
- American Nurses Credentialing Center,
11th National Magnet
Conference: October 3
- 5, 2007; Atlanta, GA. Decision Critical Booth #408.
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