DCI Donor Services eliminates paper-based quality management

The challenge

MSTF had a very organized but cumbersome training system set up with a multitude of binders. As with all paper-based systems, shuffling documents, chasing things down and ensuring completion was time consuming and challenging. Managing 75 employees' training progress, along with onboarding 40 new employees, documenting and updating records was an all-consuming task.

A person in training is often working with multiple trainers so it was difficult to get all signoffs complete especially when staff return from a case at three o'clock in the morning. Mid-South tried another national on-line solution but found there were many things they could not accomplish with the system; it was not flexible or configurable. In addition, they did not want to use a system they did not own.

The solution

Early in 2020 Talisa Washington, Education Coordinator for Mid-South Transplant Foundation, began transitioning their paper-based system to Ideagen Academy. This encompassed many aspects related to new employee orientation, including Ideagen Quality Management (IQM) product training, along with department specific training, policies and SOPs. Ideagen Academy’s extensive training courses were key to getting new MSTF users familiar with the platform and ready to start using it.  

Talisa utilized the Document Retrieval Service (DRS) on Academy to link embedded files within IQM’s Document module. She also created course units containing PowerPoint presentations, videos and handouts. The entire training program is now completely electronic, and Talisa is thrilled.

“

We don't have ANYTHING on paper!

Talisa Washington

 

Utilizing the DRS is a creative and ingenious interface with Ideagen Quality Management, adding an additional advantage to using Ideagen Academy.

Talisa also states that their training is completed much faster. "Prior to Academy, our staff would have to come into the office to complete their training because they couldn't access the training materials offsite. Now, Academy Training is available to our staff no matter where they are. They can access everything from their cell phones, tablets and laptops. Work that used to take us two to three days or more to complete now takes just a few minutes."

Talisa set up Groups with specific curriculum to organize employees by department. She explains: "Every department is considered a branch. When I set up the curriculum, I set it up per branch, so that each course (we have almost 260 courses) is part of a curriculum for each department. Some of them are position dependent. We have curriculum set up for both department wide and position specific so that when we add a new user to Ideagen Quality Management, I simply go into Academy and apply them to the correct branch group. As soon as they are added to the branch, it automatically assigns their new hire orientation and departmental training. I used to assign every single course separately."

Talisa continues: "We have created certificates for every single course as well. When a course is completed, it automatically gives them a certificate of completion for that course. Instead of having to print out the whole module we just download the certificate, and we send it off to be electronically signed. We then upload it to their electronic training folder, so we are COMPLETELY paperless!"

Additionally, MSTF is using Academy to create, administer and grade quizzes for all required subjects. Academy also allowed Talisa to upload previously created SCORM compliant quizzes for all IQM modules to the platform.

Academy allows a bank of questions to be tied to a single quiz, then the system will randomly pull from those questions. It also allows MSTF to identify question difficulty levels and a weighted scale. For example, it will pull 20% advanced, 50% medium and 30% easy. Talisa has created her own scaled grading system so that the advanced questions are weighted more heavily, and Academy manages the entire scoring configuration automatically.

Being able to see the training status in real time has been a monumental benefit. Academy contains dashboards that can be accessed for any user and an extensive report system.

“

...creating reports makes things so easy. We have so many people at so many different levels and I can see their progress all at once. We also are using it for document review — I have made that a course and distribute it through Academy. I can see review completions and those still outstanding by using the report functionality. Additionally, I can click on the course to open the details and see users that have yet to complete it. With a couple of clicks you can get a perfect assessment of where things stand and what still needs to be completed. What used to take days is now a few clicks to see training progress and where to place resources to get training completed.

Talisa Washington

An equally great benefit to Academy is being able to sync all course work to IQM. The master event list in the People module can be synced with all Academy courses (IQM and organization specific). This allows these Events to be added to master competencies as requirements, which become part of Master Job Roles. Once applied to a user, the requirement becomes a hyperlink, taking the user directly to Academy to log in, then to the assigned course. MSTF training staff do not need to create Events in the Training Courses module since coursework is managed in Academy.

Academy can then be synced back to Ideagen Quality Management, automatically updating user training plans.

“

I sync Academy to Ideagen Quality Management every day, it is part of my regular routine. That way I know all employee training plans are completely up to date anytime the employee or MSTF Management wants to review them.

Talisa Washington

 

This connection between the training platform and IQM is critical, making Academy even more valuable to Talisa and MSTF.

The results

By moving from binders to a fully digital training system, MSTF transformed how 75 employees learn, progress and stay compliant. Key outcomes include:

• Fully paperless: The entire training program is now electronic, including certificates of completion that are downloaded, signed and stored digitally.
• Training time cut dramatically: Work that previously took two to three days or more now takes just a few minutes.
• Training accessible anywhere: Staff can complete training from their cell phones, tablets and laptops, no matter where they are.
• Almost 260 courses managed: Curriculum is organized by department and position, with training plans populated automatically when a new user is added.
• Real-time visibility: Dashboards and reports give instant insight into training progress across all staff levels, replacing a process that used to take days.

By integrating Ideagen Academy with Ideagen Quality Management , MSTF built a training infrastructure that keeps pace with the demands of a high-compliance, life-saving organization.