Edgewood Depends on Relias for Ease of Use, Compliance, and Customization Options

Eight years ago, Edgewood Healthcare was searching for a new learning management platform. As leaders considered their choices, they knew they needed a learning platform that met state-mandated and internal training requirements while also providing opportunities for staff to build on their knowledge and meet licensure and recertification requirements.

Edgewood Healthcare operates 64 communities across seven upper-Midwest states. The company’s 3,100 employees provide care for over 3,700 seniors across a variety of settings, including:

• Independent living
• Assisted living
• Home health
• Day services
• Outpatient therapy
• Memory care
• Hospice care

To find the optimal learning management system for their many communities’ needs, Edgewood leaders narrowed their search to two learning management platforms. Relias won hands down, not only for its ease of use but for the ability to access regulatory compliance training and create custom courses, said Corporate Education Director Hatti Olson.

It’s important to Edgewood’s leaders that staff members have access to tools that empower them to provide best-in-class senior care.

Easing Stress on Administrators and Learners

Whether the education is for onboarding, annual regulatory compliance, or professional development, an easy-to-use system is important for facilitating course assignments and completions.

Automated Assignments

For new-hire and annual compliance training, the Relias auto-enrollment feature, a favorite of Olson’s, ensures that education modules are assigned on time. This feature relieves Olson and the community supervisors of having to manually assign training plans to each employee.

When newly hired supervisors need onboarding, Olson uses the Relias platform to create supervisor training plans on how to track assignments and access company documents and resources. This reduces the back-and-forth exchange of asking for and sending instructions via email. The Relias Requirements Tracker tool allows quick insight into when supervisors and employees have reviewed their new-hire resources, so leaders can monitor progress and ensure onboarding is completed.

Engaging Content

Relias training modules engage learners with a variety of visual, verbal, and interactive content while providing the rationale behind performing procedures a certain way. The education instills confidence that they are performing their job duties to the highest standard, Olson said.

Edgewood provides on-the-job training to employees and, in some cases, assistance in becoming a certified medical assistant. Olson also pointed out that the Relias library helps licensed or certified staff maintain their status through access to accredited courses.

Olson noted that giving employees the tools to be successful, such as high-quality training plans and in some cases opportunities to advance their careers, helps staff feel appreciated. “In light of the Great Resignation, if staff members feel cared for and comfortable in their jobs, then they are more likely to want to come to work day after day and stay with the organization,” she said.

Personalized Learning

Adjusting education content to different experience levels shows respect for learners’ time and existing knowledge. Oftentimes, employees spend mandatory training hours reviewing content they already know, Olson observed. Educating staff with the sole purpose of meeting state training requirements misses the opportunity to help employees celebrate their knowledge and skills.

Relias provides personalized learning that targets what the employee needs to know while acknowledging the content in which the employee displays competence. “People are really appreciating the personalized learning courses. You’re getting credit for the knowledge that you already have,” Olson said, and then they only have to learn or review the areas that they need.

Ensuring Regulatory Compliance

Relias’ accredited content and state-specific courses support Edgewood’s continued compliance with federal and state regulations as well as staff licensing requirements.

Because Edgewood has locations in seven states, each state has its own annual training plan, divided by quarters, Olson said. With Edgewood’s hundreds of training plans, automated assignments and reporting are vital.

An important part of compliance training is employee, resident, and visitor safety. “Employees need to understand how to keep themselves safe and uninjured along with their residents and anyone who steps into our communities,” Olson said.

Edgewood leaders must ensure staff members get the proper knowledge and skills for their role, their setting, and their state. “The training plan must be all-encompassing and improve the confidence and competence of that employee,” Olson said.

Dementia Tracking Amid Pandemic Challenges

Edgewood has a special emphasis on dementia training, which is a core part of Edgewood’s commitment to providing quality memory care to its residents. The training consists of a nine-section live training and two Teepa Snow Relias courses.

As part of the Edgewood Dementia Training Task Force, Olson is passionate about giving employees who work with residents diagnosed with dementia the best training possible.

“If you know how to interact with the resident, you can bring back memories that they haven’t been able to recall on their own.”

— Hatti Olson, Corporate Education Director, Edgewood Healthcare

When the pandemic struck the nation, all in-person training halted. Olson and the dementia training task force knew they needed to figure out how to continue the dementia training without holding live training sessions.

Using the Relias Platform, the task force uploaded recordings of each section and developed a virtual dementia care course, including a quiz to assess what employees learned.

Olson said she is grateful that the task force and Relias were able to support the Edgewood employees and residents by providing this key training during the pandemic.

Creating Customized Content

Relias’ custom course creation tools help Olson provide employees with the exact training they need in a fraction of the time it would take to develop and implement the courses from scratch.

With Relias Platform tools, Edgewood leaders can create targeted content for a specific need. For example, using the learning platform’s flexible tools, Olson created a medication aide training plan that gives employees who pass the program the ability to function as medication aides within Edgewood’s communities.

With so many learning and development options available on the Relias Platform, Olson is able to provide leaders and caregiving staff the training they need for high-quality, evidence-based care. “It’s what makes their jobs easier. I serve the leaders of our communities,” Olson said.