Five Survey Findings about Compliance Training in Healthcare (Part 1)

April 1, 2021
April 1, 2021

HealthStream recently surveyed U.S. healthcare leaders about their organizations’ compliance training solutions in order to better understand customers’ approach to complying with government regulations and accrediting body requirements and to gain insight into organizations’ compliance training needs. The questions asked for HealthStream’s Annual Report on Compliance covered several topics, including compliance training, customer priorities, and future product interest. The following are some notable conclusions that can be drawn from the survey results about compliance training in healthcare.

  1. Half of all healthcare organizations in the study reported they have a Compliance Officer who takes ownership of compliance training in their organization.

    Over a quarter (27.1%) said a combination of professionals from their organization are in charge of training. Only a few organizations reported they have either a Quality Committee, Learning/Education Professionals, Chief Nursing/Medical Officer, or a Privacy Officer take responsibility for this task. Specific to OSHA/Accreditation training, nearly 40% of organizations rely on a combination of those professionals for training.

  2. Quality, regulatory training, patient safety, Joint Commission, and HIPAA Privacy were identified as the top five areas selected for training among participating healthcare organizations.

    When asked how their organizations determine which compliance/regulatory training to deliver to staff, the top three responses were “review training data from prior year” (42.3%), “it is determined by Compliance Officer “(41.8%), and “meet as a team where everyone provides their suggestions” (41.2%). Some (38.1%) of respondents reported they deliver the same training every year. In order to keep current with changing regulations, the majority (65.4%) of healthcare organizations reported their in-house staff researches federal and state requirements.

  3. The top priority over the next 18 months for surveyed healthcare organizations is to improve patient safety.

Respondents were given a list of 10 items and asked to rate their importance on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being “not at all important” and 10 being “extremely important.” The following items rose to the top, rated as the most important areas to organizations:

  • Improving patient safety (9.4)
  • Workforce training and development (9.0)
  • Reducing compliance risk (9.0)
  • Promoting a harassment-free workplace (8.8)
  • Reducing burnout and bringing joy to the workplace (8.6)
  • Preventing phishing and other security threats (8.6)

Respondents were also asked to similarly rate the importance of certain areas to their organizations’ training initiatives. Participants selected the following as the most important areas for compliance training initiatives over the next 18 months:

  • Improving Patient Safety (9.0)
  • Reducing Compliance Risk (9.0)
  • Employee Satisfaction and Engagement with Training (8.9)
  • Training Directed to New Generations of Learners (8.4)

This blog post is the first in a series of excerpts from an article about HealthStream’s Annual Report on Compliance. HealthStream provides online healthcare compliance training solutions to help health systems, facilities, and organizations across the care continuum comply with government regulations and accrediting body requirements. These online training courses span the areas of Billing & Corporate Compliance, HIPAA, Privacy & Security, Research Compliance, and Workforce compliance. These courses are recognized for using video and other interactive elements to engage learners, increase retention, and change staff behavior.