Challenge
The University of Louisville (UofL) Hospital is an academic teaching
and research hospital that is part of UofL Health, a fully integrated
regional academic health system with five hospitals, four medical
centers, and multiple other care facilities. They had been using
a manual nurse assessment method that was effective though
time-consuming to operate and especially implement. Education
coordinators knew this solution would not scale well for consistent
use across all hospitals in the system, which was the end goal.
However, nurse leaders had understandable concerns that a more
automated process would not provide the customized, accurate,
and practical results demanded of the program.
Solution
UofL Hospital decided to add HealthStream’s Jane™, a dynamic
system that identifies gaps and recommends personalized nurse
competency plans across the knowledge and clinical judgment
domains. They chose Jane™ specifically because they wanted to
transition from time-consuming manual processes to a more
standardized approach. Jane™ was rolled out in January 2020, and
UofL Hospital coordinators quickly found themselves pivoting to
use Jane™ to rapidly assess new nurses and efficiently transition
existing nurses to additional areas of need, in response to changing
care demands during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Results
During the first 90 days of using Jane™, UofL Hospital
experienced a 50% reduction in time spent managing
assessments. The increased speed in delivery of testing, grading,
and analysis made it possible for them to complete more than
270 assessments during that time period, as well. The easy,
intuitive program was cited as particularly valuable in getting up
to speed quickly. Upon review, any concerns about using Jane™
as an assessment solution have been minimized by accurate and
objective results.
Jane™ also provided the unexpected benefit of allowing the
hospital to react quickly during the COVID crisis with minimal
disruption. With the impressive results so far, UofL Health intends
to implement Jane™ in more of its hospitals.