...“Producing meaningful metrics is a service, not a tick box” claims ikonami...

Wednesday 18th November 2009 - ikonami, a provider of bespoke learning software systems for Government, Independent Healthcare and National Health Service (NHS) organisations, today called for training professionals to be more comprehensive in their measurement of training to improve patient outcomes and reduce risk.  Training is a critical function in healthcare, helping the organisation to improve patient care and to meet mandatory guidelines as provided by the Clinical Negligence Scheme for Trusts (CNST) and the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

According to ikonami, traditional training measurement generates metrics that reflect the mechanics of training delivery rather than helping the organisation to improve skills and workforce planning. While the normal data provides simple headline information, modern healthcare organisations need to focus greater attention on the qualitative aspects of training information to facilitate organisational planning, compliance, risk management and staff development which all have a direct impact on patient care.

Arif Ahmed, Co-founder and Director of ikonami comments: "There is a gap between what is currently measured and what managers actually want. Traditional measurement processes usually focus on course completions, registrations, cost, number of hours trained, and the number of people trained. We estimate that nearly 80 per cent of all data collection efforts are wasted on routine data management tasks that a well configured LMS should be able to handle. By freeing up L&D professionals they can focus on delivering meaningful information to healthcare providers.”
 
Ikonami actively works closely with a large number of Primary Healthcare Trusts (PCTs) and private healthcare providers across the United Kingdom.  It has found that to generate the necessary qualitative view, an organisation must ensure that it is capturing a true and comprehensive picture of formal and informal learning. 

Ahmed continues, “Many organisations approach Learning Management solutions implementations as technology projects without really understanding the change issues. By not configuring the LMS to the organisational needs they limit their data output – and the burden falls back to the organisation to measure and report back manually. In these situations we don’t advocate a rip and replace approach. Talking to a technology company with deep learning expertise, will help identify what data required is for an effective metrics programme.”

According to ikonami an organisation providing healthcare service needs to measure training information more efficiently and accurately for a variety of different audiences:
 
1.   The Clinical Negligence Scheme for Trusts (CNST): an organisation can use its training records as proof of planned and completed activity designed to reduce its level of risk.  This may help the organisation to benefit from discounts on premiums under the CNST scheme, enabling more cash to be spent on front-line services.
2.   The Care Quality Commission (CQC):  an organisation can use training records to prove its progress towards targets in areas such as the hygiene code.  Healthcare organisations that fail to meet (or fail to prove they have met) CQC standards may face fines, legal action or even closure.
3.   Management within the healthcare organisation:  training information may be used to help plan workforce teams now and in anticipation of changing patient needs; it is also used for the assessment

“The need for accurate reporting and measurement does not just apply to NHS organisations. The healthcare sector is changing rapidly and evolving towards new business models because of the de-coupling of service commissioning from service provision.  While this offers private healthcare providers new opportunities to provide services within NHS organisations, that is normally based on the proviso that they commit to adopting NHS standards and compliance.  The patient may neither know nor care whether services are delivered by a private provider or the NHS, but they should be able to rest assured that each nurse delivering care is equally competent. The result is that training and training measurement are gaining a higher profile within private healthcare organisations,” concludes Ahmed.