Silverchair Learning Systems

Healthcare Management Services, LLC

Healthcare Management Services, LLC by the Numbers:

Employees: 1,011

Courses Completed in 2010: 27,108

Compliance Rate, 2010: 100%

Client
Healthcare Management Services, LLC provides skilled nursing at their eight facilities throughout California. HMS employs more than one thousand caregivers.

HMS became a Silverchair client in 2009, piloting the system in two facilities.

In early 2010, the Attorney General’s office delivered an injunction against HMS for infractions from 2003-2005, and mandatory staff training was part of the recovery plan. Chuck Cornelius, brought on as HMS’s Vice President of Quality Assurance and Compliance in 2009, worked with Silverchair to officially “re-launch” the system. He was also asked to “own” staff education and champion the use of Silverchair.

Challenges
As mentioned, HMS’s largest challenge was a lack of consistency in training and tracking; education was delivered by Staff Educators, but the training was different depending on the location. That lack of consistently unfortunately led to an injunction, but HMS developed a strong recovery plan to get back on track.

“I was looking for a different way to deliver training to make it more consistent,” Chuck says, and “I knew we had a contract with Silverchair. So I asked Lucy Cosper (Silverchair’s Regional Vice President, West) to come to our facilities and help me re-launch the system.”

Lessons Learned and Results
Chuck knew that the biggest part of the plan was to re-launch Silverchair to all eight facilities, instead of just the two facilities that were part of the pilot. He also needed to ensure that the courses in the system met the needs of HMS as part of their plan to comply with the injunction’s mandates. “I was excited to see that there was a company offering online courses, with great information, so that everyone would receive the same information during training,” Chuck says. Chuck raised the pass rate for each course to 90% and all buildings are required to have 100% compliance overall. “I wanted to raise the level of education to match the level of care we want to provide,” he says.

HMS Compliance Rates

Silverchair played a role in the re-launch as well; in addition to in-person presentations to facilities, Service Delivery authored custom courses for HMS to address their specific needs. “Franca (Silverchair Service Delivery Manager, West) was very helpful,” Chuck says.

HMS also learned that having someone champion the training program is greatly beneficial. Chuck manages the training program, setting schedules and monitoring compliance; “I maintain tight control to make sure we adhere to our five-year agreement with the Attorney General,” he says. “We meet monthly to check on requirements and if we have weak areas or ‘stragglers’ in training, we fix it.” Deadlines for course completion are clear, and “padding” has been built in to help everyone complete their training on time. Chuck has also ensured that employees who have previously taken the assigned training are on duty to answer questions, and a translator is on hand to help with various Spanish dialects.

HMS Courses Completed:

Despite its mandatory roots, employees—including the Staff Educators—have embraced the online learning system. “Our Staff Educators can now be on the floor doing one-on-one training and education without being stuck in an office for hours at a time. Now they’re on the floor five to six hours a day.” CNAs are happy that the training “helps with their studies, for those who are in school,” Chuck says, and “Everyone is taking full advantage of the CE courses. They love them.”

While Silverchair was launched to assist with HMS’s five-year agreement with the Attorney General’s office, the company will continue to use Silverchair beyond the agreement. “We’ve seen the benefit of consistent education,” Chuck says. “Now there’s a base level for what we can further accomplish.”