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Let Your Technology Do the Talking
Home » News » Let Your Technology Do the Talking |
Should a facility care how its therapy company trains its therapists? Absolutely, says Robert Campion, executive director at Heritage Square Healthcare Center in Greendale, Wisconsin. “The level, intensity, and completeness of their training are going to have an impact on how well they know systems and people, and how familiar they are with what we have done in the past and what we are trying to do in the future.”
Employee training has always been a time-consuming and labor-intensive enterprise. In the old “train the trainer” model, a handful of people would train managers who would then train therapists. Unfortunately, the information was apt to become skewed, much like the old “telephone game” where folks standing in a circle passed a whispered phrase around from ear to ear. When the phrase reached the last person, it rarely resembled the original, causing great merriment. “With so many trainers, you run the risk of each one putting his or her special spin on it,” says Mark Besch, vice-president of clinical services for Aegis. “A year down the road the trainings look completely different.”
Technology has solved the training problem for Aegis. In partnership with multimedia company Ideal Conditions, Inc., it has produced a Web-based interactive CD training course called Discourse. “Our state-of-the-art video technology, complete with Web-based interactive links, is a major step forward in training,” notes Michael Yacht, chief technology officer for Ideal Conditions. “Managers no longer have to sit for hours with trainees going over information. On average a district manager saves about 15 hours per new hire by using the Discourse training, and everyone gets a consistent message.”
The interactive CDs allow the trainee to connect to actual documents that are being discussed, including study guides. Trainees can fill out the documents, take multiple-choice or essay quizzes, and then click to submit them to their managers to grade. Because the trainee must log on and off the system, it’s easy to electronically track the time spent in the training.
Aegis uses Discourse for all of its employee training, from orientation to clinical philosophy and treatment, to documentation, and even for an annual refresher course. New hires have 45 days to complete 20 hours of training with the CDs, either at home or in the workplace. The system sends an e-mail to the manager at various steps along the way as training is completed.
“As a result of the Discourse training, we have seen a great increase in the quality of our documentation,” says Deb Neil, district manager for Aegis. “In the past, the district manager had to be with each trainee. If you have three people starting on the same day in three different facilities, how do you get to all those people?”
One of the beauties of Discourse is the ability to deliver standardized education whether therapists are in Philadelphia, Phoenix, or Portland. That’s important for teaching certain treatment strategies, such as Aegis’s philosophy of Restore, Compensate, Adapt (RCA). “The basis of RCA is that if restoration is not achieved in two or three weeks, instead of discharging residents, therapists work to compensate for deficiencies or adapt the environment,” says Neil. “We may keep the person on our caseload for four to six weeks. The family is involved and can see there are things that can be done to give the resident a better functional outcome. The RCA Discourse technology enables us to actually improve the therapy that therapists are giving.”
Without the ability to view treatment videos, discuss options in treatment, and receive feedback from managers, this kind of clinical training would be fragmented and dependent upon individual interpretation. “With the interactive Discourse courses, we ensure that all therapists learn how to make more consistent treatment judgments and decisions,” says Louanne McCray, regional sales manager for Aegis.
Using Discourse as a training tool has decreased training costs and allowed Aegis to provide uniformly trained therapists in its facilities. That goes a long way toward improving resident care.
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