Make sure your clinicians have the support they need to provide competent care with clinical competency training and development from HealthStream.
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View All ProductsHealthStream’s learning management system and comprehensive suite of competency management tools empower your healthcare workforce to deliver the best patient care.
View All ProductsExperience standardized and centralized healthcare credentialing, privileging, and enrollment that is smarter and faster than ever before.
View All ProductsAutomated, web-based provider credentialing and enrollment software for growing medical groups.
View All ProductsNCQA-certified CVO verification services for initial and re-credentialing files in an overflow or full-service capacity for healthcare organizations.
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View All ProductsImprove care quality and save money by making informed decisions about your healthcare facility and staff with HealthStream's reporting analytics solution.
View All ProductsHealthStream's proven methods for the improvement and overall engagement of your healthcare staff foster a positive workplace and increase retention rates.
View All ProductsThe leadership development program from HealthStream helps mold your high-potential healthcare employees into proven leaders.
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View All ProductsIn all areas of resuscitation, from neonatal to elderly care, clinical deterioration is a risk that can be avoided with the help of HealthStream's training programs.
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View All ProductsNurture the skills of your nurses and medical staff to help mold them into effective leaders with development training from HealthStream.
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View All ProductsHealthStream’s free nurse schedule app, NurseGrid™, is built to help you care for your staff and engage with their specific needs.
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Learn MoreHealthStream regularly publishes guest blog posts from VerityStream. Here is a recent post from Angela Beardsley, CPMSM, CPCS, Manager, Client Success Services and Consulting, at VerityStream.
New Year’s Day also comes with the idea of a clean slate, a chance for a fresh start. Inevitably, our clean slate will become tarnished at some point during the year, because we are all human and therefore we all make mistakes. The good news is that we can learn and grow from our mistakes; we can look at these slip-ups as opportunities for improvement. Even better, we can set personal and/or professional goals and create action plans that will guide us and hold us accountable to do better the next time. This applies to all of us, including providers in the healthcare industry.
Healthcare Provider Errors Are Learning Opportunities
Healthcare providers perform medical or professional activities and/or exercise surgical or technical skills on an ongoing basis, with the goal of maintaining or improving competency, in order that they may ultimately provide the highest level of quality of care and patient safety. Even with providers striving for this goal, mistakes unfortunately still do sometimes occur. When medical or professional errors do happen, it is important for the provider to be able to learn and grow from the mistake and be able to use the setback as an opportunity to set goals and action plans for improvement. It is equally imperative that healthcare organizations support their providers in being able to accomplish this, by developing a culture where providers’ mistakes are not handled punitively, but rather as opportunities for learning and performance improvement.
Often a medical or professional mistake may trigger the need for a focused evaluation in order to determine the underlying root cause and the best way to prevent the error from recurring; it may also determine that there is the need for an attributing provider to be monitored under an action plan based on the issue that occurred. It may happen that a providers’ slate becomes tarnished by a medical or professional mistake that triggers a Focused Professional Practice Evaluation (FPPE) for cause.
Best Practices for Creating a Constructive FPPE Action Plan
The following recommendations can help organizations create an FPPE action plan that embodies a culture of learning and opportunity for improvement.
Guidelines
The physician leadership (Department Chair, Service Chief, Physician Quality Leader, etc.) should emphasize to the provider that the FPPE action plan is not meant to be punitive, is not considered a formal medical staff investigation and is not reportable. It is a learning opportunity for performance improvement with the goal of successfully preventing the mistake from reoccurring (it is important to keep in mind however, if the provider does not comply with/successfully complete the FPPE action plan and/or the mistake continues to occur, there is a possibility that at some point it could result in a formal medical staff investigation/become reportable).
The physician leadership should partner with the provider who has made the medical/professional mistake; they should collaboratively develop the FPPE action plan. By allowing the provider to participate in the development of their action plan, it allows the provider to take more accountability and ownership, increasing the probability of compliance and a successful outcome.
The physician leadership and the attributing provider should agree on the elements to be identified in the FPPE action plan. Below are some suggested questions to ask and elements to be included:
What was the triggering issue (mistake) by the provider?
Did the triggering issue (mistake) result in any of the following?
What area(s) of competency/metrics is the triggering issue (mistake) related to?
Patient Care:
Medical/Clinical Knowledge:
Practice-Based Learning and Improvement:
System-Based Practice:
Interpersonal and Communication Skills/Professionalism:
What are the requirements of the FPPE action plan?
What will the method of monitoring of the provider’s performance be under the FPPE action plan?
What will be the review period for the FPPE action plan monitoring?
Who are the accountable persons for the FPPE action plan?
Who is required to review/approve the FPPE action plan?
How will improvement under the FPPE action plan be measured and documented?
What expected improvement/learning should result from successful completion of the FPPE action plan?
The physician leadership should provide communication/feedback to the provider under monitoring and to the appropriate review bodies at the end of each review period in order to maintain a collaborative and transparent process. In addition, upon successful completion of the FPPE action plan, it is important to send a communication to the provider from the physician leaders thanking the provider for their support of the process, their willingness to participate, and for improving their performance.
Hopefully your organization already embodies a culture in which FPPE action plans enable learning opportunities and performance improvement. However, if this is something that your physician leaders and providers have struggled with over previous years, a New Year’s wish is that you will find this information helpful and can influence this type of culture and FPPE process within your organization.
Expand the decision-making skills and effectiveness of your healthcare workforce with HealthStream's clinical development programs and services.
View All Clinical DevelopmentMake sure your clinicians have the support they need to provide competent care with clinical competency training and development from HealthStream.
View All ProductsThe suite of healthcare onboarding solutions available from HealthStream aids in nurse retention and improved patient outcomes.
View All ProductsGive your healthcare staff the decision support and skills training they need with the online products available from HealthStream.
View All ProductsHealthStream's solutions allow your healthcare workforce to be confident and competent with the knowledge they are upholding the highest of standards.
View All ProductsHealthStream’s learning management system and comprehensive suite of competency management tools empower your healthcare workforce to deliver the best patient care.
View All ProductsDelivers everything you need to request, gather, and validate information about a provider to create a single source of truth for downstream processes.
View All CredentialingExperience standardized and centralized healthcare credentialing, privileging, and enrollment that is smarter and faster than ever before.
View All ProductsAutomated, web-based provider credentialing and enrollment software for growing medical groups.
View All ProductsNCQA-certified CVO verification services for initial and re-credentialing files in an overflow or full-service capacity for healthcare organizations.
View All ProductsSearch, review, and add providers into the Epic provider master file with our Epic app integration, Provider Validate.
View All ProductsHealthStream’s learning management system and comprehensive suite of competency management tools empower your healthcare workforce to deliver the best patient care.
View All Learning & PerformanceHealthStream offers performance learning management solutions to help develop your healthcare staff into leaders and reduce turnover.
View All ProductsHealthStream works with healthcare organizations to create engaging and high-quality training videos for your staff and management.
View All ProductsImprove care quality and save money by making informed decisions about your healthcare facility and staff with HealthStream's reporting analytics solution.
View All ProductsHealthStream's proven methods for the improvement and overall engagement of your healthcare staff foster a positive workplace and increase retention rates.
View All ProductsThe leadership development program from HealthStream helps mold your high-potential healthcare employees into proven leaders.
View All ProductsWhen you enact HealthStream's quality compliance solutions, you can do so with the confidence your healthcare organization will meet all standards of care.
View All Quality & ComplianceFulfill compliance requirements with a variety of programs and courseware designed to address critical regulatory requirements as well as educate staff to recognize and mitigate risks.
View All ProductsBy increasing your healthcare staff's focus on quality and safety with HealthStream, they can help to reduce medical errors and readmission rates.
View All ProductsLearn about what HealthStream's healthcare policy management software and how it can help aid your organization efforts.
View All ProductsHealthStream's education helps address diversity, equity, and inclusion within your organization, as well as promoting health equity in the communities you serve.
View All ProductsHealthStream offers professional training and education on how to best optimize your reimbursement process within your healthcare organization.
View All ReimbursementTeach your healthcare staff about the revenue cycle and claim management through targeted training and video tools from HealthStream.
View All ProductsImprove the preparedness of your staff, increase survival rates, and cut costs with the advanced resuscitation training services from HealthStream.
View All ResuscitationIn all areas of resuscitation, from neonatal to elderly care, clinical deterioration is a risk that can be avoided with the help of HealthStream's training programs.
View All ProductsHealthStream's EMS Program offers a comprehensive, CAPCE accredited EMS course library that meets National Registry annual recertification.
View All ProductsNurture the skills of your nurses and medical staff to help mold them into effective leaders with development training from HealthStream.
View All ProductsMake sure your healthcare staff can schedule out appointments and work schedules with ease using HealthStream's line of software solutions.
View All Scheduling & Capacity ManagementHealthcare scheduling software designed to optimize staffing requirements & elevate patient care
View All ProductsPrecisely align staffing and needed resources to enable efficient patient flow and high-quality, cost-effective patient care.
View All ProductsHealthStream’s free nurse schedule app, NurseGrid™, is built to help you care for your staff and engage with their specific needs.
View All Products