Improved CE Management: A HealthStream Customer-Guided Success

April 1, 2021
April 1, 2021

A conversation with Pat Fragala, MN, RN, Education Coordinator and HealthStream Learning Center (HLC) System Administrator, Organizational Development, Corporate HR, Emory Healthcare

Passion for Continuing Education

Emory Healthcare is a six-hospital system with multiple physician offices in and around Atlanta, Georgia. As the HealthStream Learning Center System Administrator, Pat understands the value of continuing education. She is passionate about helping Emory staff get the credits they need to keep doing what they love doing. Many of those credits come from courses authored by internal subject matter experts at Emory. Thus, part of Pat’s job is adding and monitoring continuing education (CE) from the Georgia Nurses Association (GNA) and the International Association for Continuing Education and Training (IACET) This includes getting staff the certificates they need, the organization the documentation it needs, as well as ensuring all deadlines are met to keep CEs current on these courses. Pat is dedicated to keeping course accreditations current so that staff members aren’t taking the time to complete a course for which they can’t receive credit.

Proactive CE Credit Management

The HealthStream Learning Center has always awarded Emory staff the right CE, but, as a provider, Pat wondered if there was an easy way to manage the CE of authored courses. She wanted to be able to quickly provide her colleagues with a list of courses with CE that staff could take, but, more importantly, to proactively monitor courses with expiring CE to get ahead of deadlines.

HealthStream and Customers Collaborate to Innovate

HealthStream’s Online Community allows customers to share ideas, ask questions, and learn from one another. A HealthStream Learning Center System Administrator at another HealthStream customer site submitted an official idea in the Ideas section of the Community for a CE Credit Report—a dynamic report, filterable by Accrediting Body and course expiration date or course creation date, that aggregates all vital course details in one view. Pat noticed this idea that supported her desire for easier CE credit management, up-voted it, and added her own color commentary. In fact, this idea had 78 votes by members of the HealthStream Community, the third highest rated idea in the ideas section. When Tom Noser, Associate Vice President of Learning and Authoring at HealthStream, noticed the popularity this idea was receiving during a routine review of Community activity, he had his team reach out to Pat directly for guidance and feedback about what she’d like to see on this new report and how she’d prefer to use this reporting functionality. Discussions on this idea began in January 2014 and the new report tool was released in April 2014. 

Impact: Easier CE Credit Management

We have customers like Emory Healthcare to thank for bringing the CE Credit Report to life. Pat tells us that now more than ever, the ability to quickly identify which courses offer CE is vitally important, as the Georgia Nurses Association has mandated this year that nurses must complete at least 30 hours of CE biennially to maintain their licensure. She excitedly announced that she can now breathe easier, having all the information she needs at her fingertips to fulfill colleague requests and manage the CE process for courses created by Emory Healthcare. She assures us that the CE Credit Report will be an invaluable tool in helping Emory Healthcare stay on top of CE expiration dates and allow department heads to disseminate course information to staff eager for CE credit.

“The CE Credit Report is a valuable tool in helping Emory Healthcare stay on top of CE expiration dates. Everyone can use a helpful reminder. Working with HealthStream to develop this tool was a painless, easy process.”

Pat Fragala, MN, RN, Education Coordinator and HLC System Administrator, Organizational Development, Corporate HR, Emory Healthcare 

The CE Credit Report is now live in the HealthStream Learning Center administrator site. If you are a current HealthStream customer, explore the HealthStream Community and consider submitting an idea of your own!