Healthcare LMS

Is It Time to Replace Your Healthcare LMS?

by Debbie Williams

Healthcare companies rely on healthcare LMSs to streamline training and simplify compliance management. To provide the highest quality of training, it’s important that healthcare organizations use an updated LMS that meets the needs of staff, clients, and patients. 

3 Signs You Should Replace Your Learning Management System

Here are a few indicators that it’s time to replace your current healthcare LMS:

1. Managing training is a hassle -- Healthcare is an extremely fast-paced industry. The last thing administrators need is trouble managing online training. The United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), the largest nonprofit organ donor and transportation organization in the U.S., found that replacing its legacy training systems with a new LMS made course and training material management easier.

“UNOS was using multiple storage and hosting solutions and third-party applications, making it difficult to manage training materials and courses. Their legacy training systems also wouldn’t allow automatic tracking, assignation and creation of certificates for CE credits,” stated LMS for Healthcare: 5 Successful Case Studies.¹

By implementing an extended enterprise LMS that consolidated the company’s training management to one centralized location, administrators no longer had to use third-party applications to manually transfer data.

Other healthcare organizations such as pharmaceutical companies training internal staff, volunteers, or even patients, often face similar issues. If you have multiple training systems or an LMS that doesn’t consolidate your data in one easily accessible location, it may be time to update and streamline your processes.

2. Your current LMS isn’t cost-effective -- It’s unlikely that any healthcare company has a limitless training budget. In a survey mentioned by Lambda Solutions, “nearly 70 percent of survey respondents indicated that their number one challenge in providing continued education, training and learning opportunities for employees is due to the fact that it is too costly.² Many of these respondents use an LMS. If their budget does not allow for both an LMS and specialized in-person training, the learning management system may be too expensive.

High training costs often stem from an LMS that uses a per-learner pricing model. This type of LMS can cost nearly $5 per learner, per month, according to Finances Online.³ To give you an idea of what this could add up to, consider that the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association has at least 10,000 members.4 If a per-user LMS was implemented, the monthly cost for members alone could be around $50,000. A better choice would be a provider that offered LMS pricing at a flat rate, eliminating the per-learner fees that escalate costs.

VIEW OUR PRICING MODEL
3. Employees’ soft skills are weak -- For healthcare staff, soft skills such as customer service, communication, and the ability to work in a team setting are essential. For example, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta saw an increase in employee soft skills after implementing a cloud-based LMS solution that facilitated leadership training. The training targeted empowerment, communication, peer-to-peer feedback, taking initiative, and accepting accountability in all situations.

The reaction to the training was positive. According to the case study, staff not only took the training to heart, but also applied it in their work, helping improve collaboration and communication throughout the organization.5

Soft skills can be measured by using LMS reports to assess the progress employees are making in related courses. Also, an LMS can distribute assessments to staff and patients for direct feedback on the quality of employees’ soft skills.

Related Reading: Characteristics to Look for in a Healthcare LMS

Is Your Healthcare LMS Meeting Your Organization’s Needs?

Every organization has different needs and priorities. Depending on your organization’s major frustrations, business goals, and current resources, it may be a good time to replace your healthcare LMS - or it may be better to wait. In either case, you know you need to start making a change based on your answers to the following questions:

  • Is managing training resources and online courses difficult?
  • Is your healthcare organization unable to provide all the training employees need, including online, in-person, and blended format, due to an expensive LMS?
  • Are your employees’ soft skills growing?

If the answer to these questions is no, now is the time to start evaluating your budget and resources for replacing your learning management system.

Healthcare Training


References:

1. Better Buys. LMS for healthcare: 5 successful case studies. https://www.betterbuys.com/lms/lms-for-health-care/.

2. Lambda Solutions. Healthcare learning management system survey results. https://blog.lambdasolutions.net/healthcare-learning-management-system-survey-results.

3. Finances Online. How much does LMS software cost? Comparison of pricing plans. https://financesonline.com/how-much-does-lms-software-cost-comparison-of-pricing-plans/.

4. Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association. Membership. https://www.hbanet.org/membership.

5. CD2 Learning. CD2’s learning leadership training. https://www.cd2learning.com/home.aspx?pagename=clients_childrensofatlanta.

Debbie Williams

Debbie Williams

Director, Marketing