Nicklaus Children’s Health System (NCHS) made a commitment in 2017 to the global ISO 9001:2015 standard, which provides the framework for health-care organizations seeking to provide a consistent product or service, improve customer “patient” satisfaction, and commit to continual organizational improvement.
With full support from the senior leadership team, Learning & Development Services (LDS) played a pivotal role in this initiative by developing quality management education tools and implementing innovative and engaging strategies to provide inter-professional education in daily operations for all clinical and non-clinical areas impacting the patient experience.
Program Details
Those LDS practices included the following:
- Delivered comprehensive training to 409 leaders and key staff members. As of March 28, 2018, there were 60 Champions Representatives educated on ISO key concepts to raise awareness within the organization.
- Created educational modules for the general staff and leadership: specifics on NCHS Management System, ISO 9001:2015 Certification, and ISO 9001:2015 Structure Essentials. Approximately 72 percent of all staff completed the general education and 57.6 percent of all leaders completed the education targeted to management in 2018.
- Developed DNV/ISO Nuggets (educational fact sheets) on several topics to enhance general knowledge on key concepts, terminology, and standards compliance. Topics included Survey Mantra, Physical Environment Part 1 and Part 2, ISO The Basics, ISO Clauses and Management System, Patient Tracers, Survey Etiquette, Basic Glossary, Sedation Practices, Calibration, Nursing Medication Administration, Contract Management, Translation Services, Lean (Standard Work), and Documented Information. These nuggets were released on a weekly basis in The Pulse Newsletterand posted on the Accreditation and Regulatory portal Web page. There were a total of 15 nuggets published throughout the DNV/ISO awareness campaign.
- Created a DNV/ISO Trivia Contest in 2018 on a bi-weekly basis with questions related to the previous week’s DNV/ISO Nuggets to validate staff engagement, understanding, and knowledge. Participants had an opportunity to answer five questions correctly and enter a $25 gift card raffle. A total of 65 staff members participated during all trivia contests, and four winners received gift cards.
- Delivered two Educational Fairs with more than 12 informative booths focused on different topics such as patient rights, medical equipment maintenance, life safety management, quality improvement, and ISO 9001:2015 introduction. Approximately 500 staff members attended the two fairs.
- Participated in the 2017 annual Nursing Skills Day Fairs with a DNV/ISO educational booth targeting 284 nursing staff. There were a total of six days of education fairs and 674 nursing staff in attendance.
- Provided annual NCHS Outpatient Centers Educational Fairs targeted to offsite facilities and ambulatory services reaching 249 staff in 2017 and 314 staff in 2018.
- Created a Mobile Education offering using a cart designed as a cruise ship to engage staff participation with interactive games. Participants needed to answer several questions correctly in order to enter a raffle for gift cards. In 2017, the module targeted 16 departments with a total of 185 participants.
- Provided ISO 9001:2015 education at 34 departmental staff meetings in clinical and non-clinical areas with 562 staff in attendance. Also provided education to 32 residents and several fellows during one of their conferences.
- Decorated a central hallway with posters to showcase the different educational concepts and to increase staff awareness as they walked by.
- Launched a digital copy of the annual DNV-GL Readiness Booklet with key ISO 9001:2015 terminology and concepts to enhance organizational education and awareness in preparation for the annual re-accreditation survey. The digital booklet was accessible to all staff via the Accreditation and Regulatory portal Web page and was enhanced further in 2018 with a digital copy accessible via a QR code.
Results
Launching the ISO 9001:2015 educational campaign helped staff become more aware of some of the required components to meet compliance with ISO standards by the 2019 DNV-GL Healthcare Accreditation survey. Among the improvements were a 4.5 percent increase in responses to “nurses communicated with child” and a 2.8 percent increase in “doctors communicated with child.”
In addition, the digital booklet saved $30,000 in printing costs.
The educational initiatives were only one component of the entire framework to meet compliance with ISO 9001:2015 standards and implementation of “standard work” in daily operations. LDS continues to be responsible for additional educational efforts on the journey to ISO 9001:2015 compliance in alignment with the NCHS Management System.
