2026 Trends in Quality and Compliance
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HealthStream released its 2026 Trends in Quality and Compliance report, which explores healthcare trends and challenges related to learner engagement, AI, cybersecurity, compliance, and leadership development.
Our experts hosted a 35-minute webinar to discuss the report’s findings and explore how healthcare organizations can move beyond basic regulatory adherence to achieve high reliability. Their conversation centered around critical challenges facing the industry, from the persistent struggle with learner engagement and the execution gap in compliance programs to the urgent need for practical leadership development and cybersecurity governance.
Watch the webinar to deepen your understanding of these trends and to learn strategies on how to modernize education, better equip frontline managers with the skills to coach their teams, and operationalize training to reduce risk.
Click here to access the full webinar.
Timestamp Overview
- [00:01:07] Speaker Introductions
- [00:02:40] 2026 Trends in Quality and Compliance Report Overview
- [00:03:53] Focus on Learner Engagement
- [00:11:28] Improving Compliance Education Programs
- [00:19:26] Leadership Development Challenges
- [00:28:32] Cybersecurity and AI in Healthcare
- [00:33:46] Final Takeaways and Conclusion
Full Transcription
Disclaimer: This transcription was written by AI, thanks to Descript.
[00:00:00] Caroline Yelverton: Hello everyone and thank you for joining us for today's webinar 2026 Trends in Quality and Compliance. My name is Caroline Yelverton, and I'm the director of Marketing for the Quality and Compliance Team at HealthStream. Before we get started, I'd like to cover a few housekeeping items. The beyond 24 console that you're looking at right now can be completely customized.
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[00:01:07] Speaker Introductions
[00:01:07] Caroline Yelverton: Today we are thrilled to be joined by two incredible experts from HealthStream – First Robyne Wilcox. Robyne is passionate about helping healthcare organizations mature into high reliability organizations.
[00:01:21] As Vice President of Quality, compliance and Culture at HealthStream, she leads strategic initiatives to improve quality outcomes, ensure compliance and foster continuous improvement. With a commitment to operational excellence, Robyne creates programs that empower people and minimize risk. And second, Jennifer Stoop.
[00:01:42] Jennifer is a product leader with over 20 years of healthcare experience specializing in safety and compliance. As senior product manager at HealthStream, she leads the development of innovative solutions that drive regulatory compliance and improve quality outcomes, focusing on building strong connections and understanding stakeholder needs. Jennifer. So, for those who work in healthcare, you make it your business to take care of people. And here at HealthStream, we make it our business to take care of healthcare. We are the number one advisor for developing and empowering people to deliver the highest quality of care, working side by side with over 5,000 healthcare organizations for over 30 years to cultivate a more competent and engaged workforce.
[00:02:40] 2026 Trends in Quality and Compliance Report Overview
[00:02:40] Caroline Yelverton: Today's discussion is based on our fifth annual trends in quality and compliance report. Every year, the HealthStream team asks the continuum of care with backgrounds in compliance, HR, education and learning quality, and it ITC about their priorities and challenges. Credible, now available for demo. For everyone today, you can access the report by either clicking on the link in your resection when you read these findings for 2026.
[00:03:15] The report identifies high reliability as a central goal for healthcare organization, but it also has number one, learner engagement remains the biggest training challenge. Two, compliance education programs need improvement. Three, organizations face a leadership readiness crisis. Four, cybersecurity training remains a top focus.
[00:03:37] Five training programs, shape retention and organizational success, and six raises hesitation. For today's webinar, we're going to focus mainly on the first four and we invite you to download the report to go deeper.
[00:03:53] Focus on Learner Engagement
[00:03:53] Caroline Yelverton: Let's start with number one. As stated in this year's report, learner engagement was named the top three.
[00:04:07] For the second year in a row with 41% of leaders calling it their greatest obstacle. Leaders also cited proving earner engagement and utilization remain the top concern going into 2026. So bringing it to our incredible panelists, Jen, Robyne, why do you think engagement remains such a persistent issue?
[00:04:28] Jennifer Stoop: Well, I think learner engagement being the number one challenge for the second year in a row is not really surprising to me. What we're seeing across healthcare organizations is a gap between how people are learning today and how training is still being delivered. Staff expect a modern learning experience and they want content that feels relevant, intuitive, and.
[00:04:57] Connected to their day-to-day work. When education feels static or repetitive, especially when it's the same course year after year, the same boring compliance topic year after year, it becomes something that they have to get through rather than something that they need to learn from at the same time.
[00:05:18] Our workforce is stretched incredibly thin. Frontline staff and managers are balancing clinical responsibilities, operational demands, and a lot of administrative work and education will often fall to the bottom of that list unless it is clearly supporting their ability to do their jobs more effectively.
[00:05:41] So when we talk about engagement, I think what we're really talking about. Is experience design. If learning feels modern, personalized and practical engagement will follow that. If it feels like a compliance checkbox engagement is going to drop.
[00:06:14] Robyne Wilcox: I thought that was a really good point. I also think what the engagement statistic is really signaling underneath the surface is that engagement isn't just a learning problem, right? It's a compliance execution problem.
[00:06:35] And I think it's an operational consistency problem. Ultimately, that makes it a risk problem. So, especially as organizations, they're growing and they're becoming decentralized and then they operate across hybrid environments so I start with scalability, right? We know high reliability depends on consistency.
[00:06:54] So when training pro programs aren't designed to scale across the enterprise, you're going to see inconsistent or interpretation of policies. You're going to see variable execution across locations and roles and you're going to find that your leaders have a limited visibility into whether or not the standards are actually being reinforced.
[00:07:15] So scalability isn't about a one size fits all training. It's about having a standardized foundation, clear regulatory expectations, but also role-based alignment with that training and enterprise level insight. And without that backbone, I think engagement really drops in compliant risk. It really increases.
[00:07:37] So when leaders say that engagement is their biggest challenge, I think what they're really saying is that they're concerned about execution and they're concerned about consistency. And so engagement is maybe the leading indicator, but scalability, that modern design that Jen just talked about and smart standardization.
[00:07:56] I mean, that's the solution, right? So the question isn't whether organizations are investing in their training. It's whether they're investing in a training system that's built for the way healthcare actually operates today.
[00:08:11] Caroline Yelverton: Thanks, Robyne. I want to build on some of the things you said.
[00:08:15] One of the reasons our readers, our customers, too, find this report specifically so valuable is because with each finding we're sharing best practices. We'd like to use today's webinar to discuss just a few of those recommendations. So back to the two of you. What are some practical steps that organizations can take to make training and learning more meaningful for their staff?
[00:08:38] Jennifer Stoop: Sure. There are some very practical steps that organizations can take right now that will make education more meaningful for staff First. Interactive learning matters when learners are asked to make decisions or respond to scenarios or even apply. Knowledge, retention will increase and engagement improves.
[00:09:02] Second role specific content is critical. A nurse manager, environmental services worker, a pharmacist, they should not be taking the exact same training. When training reflects real responsibilities, learners can immediately connect it to their work in their everyday life. Third, individualized learning plans help build accountability when staff understand what they need to complete and why it matters for their role and growth completion becomes more intentional.
[00:09:39] And fourth, real time progress tracking gives leaders insight. It allows organizations to identify disengagement early and intervene with support rather than waiting for deadlines. And finally, it's important to link training to career ladders in order to change the narrative. When education supports advancement, skill development, and leadership opportunities, it stops feeling like a requirement and will start to feel more like an investment.
[00:10:16] Robyne Wilcox: That's great. What I would add is I think that it's just important to reinforce what Jen was saying about high reliability organizations don't rely on single interventions. Training isn't a one and done thing, right? It's also important to remember that the goal isn't more and more training.
[00:10:36] It's about better outcomes. So your strategy should really be not focusing on just completions. It's more about comprehension. It's more about adoption. You shouldn't be focused on isolating training, that one and done type training, right? You want to have that continual reinforcement.
[00:10:56] And I think you want to move away from activity reporting, just checking the box, and you want to really focus on organizational alignment and you want to focus on execution, right? When that training is meaningful, I think engagement increases and then when engagement increases, your risk decreases.
[00:11:13] That's ultimately what we're driving for or striving for in high reliability.
[00:11:19] Caroline Yelverton: I love those two terms together. Alignment and execution. I want to talk about actually those a little bit more in relation to compliance.
[00:11:28] Improving Compliance Education Programs
[00:11:28] Caroline Yelverton: When we build on the importance of learner engagement, we can come to take away number two, compliance programs.
[00:11:37] What are the questions we ask year after year is for our respondents to rate their compliance education programs on a scale of one to 10, 10 being 100% effective. And this year our leaders rate their compliance programs as only moderately effective with an average score of 7.6 out of 10. When we think about compliance, we want tens, right?
[00:11:58] We want 100% effectiveness from our programs, but year after year, we're seeing our leaders rate their programs less than 10 and less than actually equates to more risk. So what separates a moderately effective program from a highly effective one? Let's start with you again, Jen.
[00:12:17] Jennifer Stoop: Well, I think leaders rating their compliance programs as moderately effective is actually an honest and encouraging signal.
[00:12:27] Most organizations have a strong foundation in place. The difference between moderate and highly effective programs really comes down to integration and application. Highly effective programs don't just deliver content. They change behavior. They are embedded in daily workflows, reinforced by managers and connected to real operational outcomes.
[00:12:54] They're also measurable organizations that continuously evaluate knowledge gaps, incident trends, and training effectiveness can quickly adapt.
[00:13:00] Compliance education becomes a living program rather than a static requirement. And finally, leadership visibility matters when leaders are talking about compliance as a core part of quality and safety.
[00:13:21] Staff understand that it is essential part of how care is delivered, not just a regulatory obligation.
[00:13:35] Robyne Wilcox: That's good. I like how you really focus on, it's not a regulatory obligation, right? It's more about outcomes. And I think if you look at that number, 7.6, at first glance might seem respectable, but when we're talking about compliance, it's that gap between 7.6 and 10 where that risk lives, right?
[00:13:54] And that means that policies aren't com are, are being completed, but they're not fully understood. And, and training maybe is a sign, but it's, it's not consistently applied. Staff might know the rules, but they're not confident about how they're applying those rules in real situations.
[00:14:10] So in other words, the gap isn't really about the effort, I think. I think it's about the execution and, and that's where learner engagement becomes really critical, right? That lower uneven engagement that widens the gap. When leaders consistently rate their programs.
[00:14:27] Below a 10. I don't think they're admitting failure. What they're really acknowledging is a reality. And, and the opportunity here is for that modern training that Jen talked about earlier. You really want to close that engagement gap, not just check the box and you want to improve alignment through consistency across your entire organization.
[00:14:46] You really want to move that compliance from. From that check the box. Just something that you have to do to building that individual alignment and confidence. Across your organization, right? What it looks like in one facility or in one department, it should look the same in in another department. I think that consistency is absolutely critical.
[00:15:08] Caroline Yelverton: Thanks, Robyne. Let's talk a little bit more about best practices. Again, in this go round, let's talk about improving the effectiveness of that compliance program. In the report we outline really two major areas that directly align with a centralized goal.
[00:15:25] Of achieving high reliability. First, regulatory accountability. Things like ensuring training meets requirements, structured systems to track completion rates, communications about reg changes, audit readiness, role-based accountability, but also number two, education meaning tailored resources based on setting and role accessible programs that reduce cognitive load and increase engagement, and ability to assess knowledge gaps.
[00:15:49] All of this and more rolls up into a word we've said already a couple times today. Outcomes and the report found two big things here. 55% of healthcare leaders feel their training programs do have an impact on employee retention. And another 64% feel they had an impact on business outcomes. There's some movement that can happen here if we're taking the right steps.
[00:16:12] So over to you, Jen. First, how can compliance and HR leaders work together to strengthen the compliance program?
[00:16:21] Jennifer Stoop: Well, to reposition mandatory training as a career investment compliance and HR leaders really need to work together in a more intentional manner. Reporting and analytics I think are foundational.
[00:16:36] Without clear data on completion competency and outcomes, it is difficult to demonstrate return on investment. When leaders can see how training connects to quality metrics, incident reduction in performance, it will become more meaningful. Defensibility is another key factor. Legally defensible education protects the organization and the employee.
[00:17:02] It ensures that staff have been properly trained and assessed in critical areas, which really is essential in today's regulatory environment. Most importantly, education has to focus on practical application, real world scenarios and skill-based learning, give staff tools that they can use immediately that builds their confidence and capability, which directly supports career growth.
[00:17:28] When HR and compliance align training with career pathways leadership development and performance goals, mandatory education becomes part of the professional development process rather than just a standalone requirement.
[00:17:47] Robyne Wilcox: You hit on an important point there about leadership development. I think leaders are critical to this, right? I don't think organizations strengthen their programs by just adding more courses. I think they do it by developing their leaders and showing their leaders how to promote and model compliance.
[00:18:02] Right? But, when? I think what we consistently see is that programs stall when their leaders see compliance as a one and done instead of a daily expectation. Or, when they don't have the skills to translate training into modeled behavior and setting a good example. I don't think it's a content issue.
[00:18:22] It's more about a leadership readiness issue. Compliance education is only as effective as the leaders reinforcing it, and I think leadership development closes that gap when you equip your leaders to have consistent conversations about expectations and you teach them to coach to policy in real scenarios.
[00:18:45] Just having those tough conversations and when you train them to recognize and correct that compliance drift. When folks are getting off track before those things become a risk. I think the real difference or one of the key differences between a moderately effective compliance program and a high reliability.
[00:19:06] Reliable one, a highly reliable one. I think it's leadership capability organizations that close that gap is when they invest, not just in compliance education, but in leaders who really know how to execute it.
[00:19:26] Leadership Development Challenges
[00:19:26] Caroline Yelverton: One of the key takeaways in the report is exactly some of what you're talking about, Robyne.
[00:19:31] It is a leadership readiness crisis. A little bit more. A lot of the respondents in this report noted that that piece leadership development at their organization specifically is severely lacking or non-existent. The report highlights a desire for leadership training that focuses on practical application or real world scenarios.
[00:19:56] Some leaders said, and I'll quote a couple of them. Leadership development for the management staff is severely lacking. Another one said, great initial training, but lacking in ongoing training. So it's quotes like this and different things that are in the paper. This feedback is not unique to our survey and this year's report either.
[00:20:13] And for years, and you'll see the stats on the screen here, managers and leaders have been stating and proving that lack of leadership development leads to tangible problems. Problems managers are failing within their first couple years of a new role. There's even a stat here from the Becker's healthcare article.
[00:20:32] It talks about 70% of strategic initiatives are failing. And these organizations are able to equate that back to the lack of proper training and leadership development for their managers. Our report does highlight a desire for leadership training that focuses on things like practical application and real world.
[00:20:49] Real-world scenarios. Can you expand on why this is essential? Robyne, let's start with you.
[00:20:57] Robyne Wilcox: Oh yeah. How many times have you seen someone promoted into a leadership role and they're just sort of left to figure it out themselves? Right. And you know, strong people, smart people with critical thinking skills, they're going to figure it out eventually.
[00:21:10] But it could be really clunky and it could take a lot of time. So I think when leaders say that they want training focused on practical application and real world scenarios. I think what they're really saying is, “I'm expected to execute, but I haven't been equipped to do this.”
[00:21:27] That gap shows up in comments like, “leadership development is severely lacking” or “great initial training, but no ongoing support.” We hear that a lot. This isn't isolated feedback. I mean, we see this as a pattern and I think it has real consequences. As you can see by the statistics here.
[00:21:47] And that really impacts culture. Culture isn't what's written in a policy or stated in a value or a mission statement. Culture is what leaders tolerate and what they enforce or reinforce and what they model every day. So if your leaders aren't trained to reinforce expectations consistently, or coach in real situations.
[00:22:12] Or address that compliance drift before it becomes a real risk. I think then even the best of design programs are going to stall. So when leadership development is missing, execution is going to suffer. And when execution suffers, I think culture really weakens. You don't get reliable execution without your prepared leaders, and you don't get that those prepared leaders by accident.
[00:22:41] This is an intentional thing that you must invest in from your rising leaders to your seasoned leaders all the way through.
[00:22:53] Jennifer Stoop: Yeah, I agree, Robyne. It's really important for you to have strong leaders within an organization driving that culture. There's obviously a strong demand for leadership training that focuses on practical application and real world scenarios that demand reflects a real operational need. Frontline leaders are the bridge between policy and practice.
[00:23:23] They are responsible for coaching staff addressing performance issues and ensuring procedures are followed consistently. Without practical leadership training, even well-designed compliance programs are going to break down at the unit level. When managers are not equipped to handle documentation, incident response, or regulatory expectations, compliance risk is going to increase.
[00:23:50] Inconsistent enforcement and unclear communication can lead to survey findings, safety events, and legal exposure. Effective leadership training reduces that risk. It will produce managers that make sound decisions, reinforce standards, and respond appropriately in complex situations. Ultimately, strong leadership competency supports both patient safety and organizational compliance.
[00:24:29] Caroline Yelverton: And let's take leadership to best practices. So let's talk about some of our best practices. Robyne, if you'll walk us through these, that'd be great.
[00:24:37] Robyne Wilcox: Yeah, these are some good ones. So first, I think you want to make sure that your program has personalized development pathways, right? You want to make sure that your leaders are developing the specific capabilities required for their role, for the scope of their role, and for their risk exposure, rather than just generic leadership content.
[00:24:57] And there's plenty of that out there, right? You want to align competencies to organizational initiatives. I think you want to directly connect leadership development to the priorities of your organization. Whether that's quality or safety, compliance risk, right? Workforce stability. I think you want to make sure that your program is giving them a way to directly apply their skills to your challenges.
[00:25:24] I mean, third, you want to offer hard skills and soft skills. You want to offer clinical and CE options? I think that you want to build well-rounded leaders, right? Who can manage people operations and risk, not just their technical responsibilities. And I think part of that is making sure that you're supporting ongoing professional development while reinforcing those real world leadership or clinical decision making skills.
[00:25:55] You want to make sure that. Again, whether it's a rising leader or a seasoned leader, they've got something because their, their challenges change as they're growing. Fourth is flexible, accessible learning options. You want to make sure that you're enabling learning that fits, fits into a leader's actual workflows across their shifts, across their departments.
[00:26:20] They're hybrid environments. You want to make sure that they've got training that meets them where they're at. And then finally, you want to provide continual feedback and coaching opportunities. You want to move development from that one and done episode, right? That one time training. It takes ongoing.
[00:26:37] Skill reinforcement as, as I said earlier, a rising leader is going to have a much different experience than a seasoned leader. And they're going to have different challenges and they're going to need different training. So having that continual feedback to let them practice, learn new skills and apply them is very important.
[00:26:56] Our program, for example, has an AI practice tool that allows leaders to practice those tough conversations in, in, in a safe environment before they're practicing on your real people. I think that continual feedback loop is absolutely, absolutely important for your program as well.
[00:27:21] Caroline Yelverton: Jen, anything to add?
[00:27:23] Jennifer Stoop: I would say as organizations implement best practices like personalized development pathways and flexible learning options, role-based accountability becomes even more important. Managers need transparency into their team's training, status, competency development, and risk areas.
[00:27:43] Without that visibility, it's difficult to intervene early or provide meaningful coaching. There's also a direct connection to patient safety and compliance when frontline managers are not properly trained for leadership roles. Gaps emerge in oversight documentation and staff performance. Those gaps can translate into safety events and regulatory deficiencies.
[00:28:10] Investing in manager development is one of the most effective ways to strengthen both compliance and quality outcomes.
[00:28:20] Caroline Yelverton: Well said. Yes. Well said. Some really wonderful takeaways on this slide. Thank you. Okay, so our last takeaway that we're going to talk about today.
[00:28:32] Cybersecurity and AI in Healthcare
[00:28:32] Caroline Yelverton: You, you cannot talk about 2026 without talking about cybersecurity.
[00:28:36] And AI report expands in many directions about these topics. But for the sake of today, we're just going to talk about risk and training. When asked about their concerns for cyber threats in 2026. Over half. 53% of our 670 plus leaders said that they are concerned about data privacy and security. And the headlines reflect this concern.
[00:28:57] So with growing threats comes change. Jen, Robyne, what does responsible governance look like right now in healthcare settings and, and what role should compliance leaders be playing in its development?
[00:29:12] Jennifer Stoop: Well, with more than half of leaders expressing concern about data privacy and security, responsible governance has become a central priority in a healthcare setting.
[00:29:24] Responsible government means establishing clear policies, consistent oversight, and shared accountability across departments. Compliance leaders play a critical role in shaping this framework. They help define expectations, ensure regulatory alignment, and support. Ongoing monitoring governance is not just about policy creation, it's about embedding data privacy, cybersecurity and ethical technology use into everyday workflows, and that requires continuous education, clear communication at every level of the organization.
[00:30:05] Robyne Wilcox: Yeah, well said, Jen. I think compliance leaders are sort of that connective tissue. Between all the departments, legal, IT, and clinical operations. It's not just theoretical. I think it's so important to operationalize or automate governance as much as you can and make sure that standard is expressed and communicated through proper training, through enforcing that accountability and through continual reinforcement.
[00:30:38] So expectations are always understood and they're defensible, right? If you're surveyed. So, I think it's absolutely important that you see yourself as that connective tissue.
[00:30:55] Caroline Yelverton: Thanks, Robyne. Okay. So one more best practice to share today and then we'll take it on home.
[00:31:01] So we said to our survey respondents, given these threats, what is that number one tactic you've seen make a positive impact? What's working? And without a doubt, our leader said education for increasing awareness was the best tactic. Whether that's effective phishing simulations from a reputable vendor or partnering with a vendor or partner to provide awareness education to all staff.
[00:31:25] Over half our survey respondents agreed on this B best practice. So thinking about the relationship between different departments, how can compliance IT, HR leaders collaborate more effectively to address the challenges of cybersecurity AI and, and these risks to employee and patient safety?
[00:31:47] Jennifer Stoop: I think to address cybersecurity and AI related risks, collaboration between compliance, IT and HR must be intentional and ongoing.
[00:32:00] Education's one of the most effective tools we have phishing simulators, scenario-based cybersecurity training. Role specific guidance can all help staff recognize and respond to all sorts of threats. These efforts should be tailored to different learner levels from frontline staff to the executives.
[00:32:24] Increasing awareness across the organization creates a shared sense of responsibility. When employees understand how their actions impact data security and patient safety, they're going to become more active participants in risk reduction rather than passive recipients of a policy.
[00:32:47] Robyne Wilcox: Yeah, I think you're absolutely right, Jen. I think education, right? It's a great place to start. It's the right place to start. And I think it helps build a common baseline of understanding across the enterprise how data is used, where the risk lives, what good judgment looks like.
[00:33:04] So I think education is absolutely the best place to start. And I think as organizations are looking ahead into this year, I think making ai a core focus of their strategy and training isn't really optional, right? I think training absolutely goes hand in hand with that strategy.
[00:33:21] So I think anyone who's investing early in awareness and education are really better to not only protect themselves, right, but to leverage AI as part of their initiatives in 2026.
[00:33:36] Caroline Yelverton: There's so much good information in this report. We've touched on what just feels like a lot, but also just the surface level of what's in this report.
[00:33:46] Final Takeaways and Conclusion
[00:33:46] Caroline Yelverton: So as we come to a close, we do want to highlight some final takeaways for our audience, if you would, Jen and Robyne walk us through these and their potential impact on organizational reliability in 2026.
[00:34:00] Jennifer Stoop: Sure. So first, compliance programs must be current, adaptable and measurable regulations evolve technology advances and workforce expectations.
[00:34:13] Change. Programs that can adapt and demonstrate impact will be the most effective. Second, educating all staff about cybersecurity and AI is no longer optional. It is essential. Data privacy, security awareness, and understanding the accuracy and limitations of AI outputs are now core competencies in healthcare.
[00:34:38] Organizations that prioritize this education will be better positioned to protect both their patients and their workforce.
[00:34:50] Robyne Wilcox: All right. I think that's it. I'm going to take us home with the last two takeaways here. I think investing in leadership, we've, we've underscored that a number of times today, and I absolutely think it's, it's critical, right? I think, you want to make sure that you're investing in. Leadership development that's for real world readiness.
[00:35:10] And inclusivity, it's not really optional anymore. And you want to invest in every stage of your leaders. Your leaders are being asked to do more and more at every level, from the rising leader to the seasoned leader. And that requires practical skills, consistent judgment. And the ability to lead inclusively, that's, that's a big word for us now across all roles and locations and care settings, right?
[00:35:36] And so I really think when leaders are equipped to do that, well, then you're going to find that engagement increases, execution improves, and risk gets lower, which is absolutely critical. And then finally, I think training remains. One of the most powerful tools that organizations have to retain talent and achieve their business goals.
[00:35:58] We hear that over and over every year. It shows up in our report every year as being a very important piece of the puzzle. Right. But, it's absolutely true. I think well-designed training, builds confidence and it creates clarity. And it supports career mobility, right? I think when you really invest in your people, they invest in you.
[00:36:24] And so I think the common thread that we've seen across everything today is that execution is really the key concern. It's the underlying issue. It's the underlying challenge I think that we want to address and achieve. So if there's one message, I think that I would leave today, is that the path to that stronger culture that lowers risk to better outcomes.
[00:36:47] I think it runs directly through your leadership readiness and a scalable system that is consistent across your organization is really what delivers that meaningful training and prepares your leaders and your people to achieve that high reliability.
[00:37:11] Caroline Yelverton: Robyne, Jen, thank you so, so much for your time today. What a great session. Really helping our, our friends in healthcare on the call plan their priorities for the year ahead. For those listening as a reminder, we're happy to share. The information that we've been discussing today is based on our fifth annual trends in quality and compliance report.
[00:37:32] Now available for download for everyone on the call today. You can access this report by either clicking in the resources section or by visiting healthstream.com and navigating to our resources page. At this time, we do have a poll question open. We hope you've seen that poll question and. You've seen it appear on your screen.
[00:37:56] It's really asking you about your 2026 initiatives. What's on your mind? What would you like to discuss a little more with HealthStream? Is it safety and compliance, policy management, leadership development, cybersecurity? Let us know what your top priority is for you right now today, and someone from HealthStream will be in touch.
[00:38:14] Thank you again to our fantastic panelists for today's wonderful presentation, and thank you to everyone for joining us. We hope you'll share this information with others at your organization as we work together to improve staff engagement and care outcomes. With that said, this concludes our webinar.
[00:38:31] Have a great day, everyone.
Click here to access the full webinar.
Presenters
HealthStream released its 2026 Trends in Quality and Compliance report, which explores healthcare trends and challenges related to learner engagement, AI, cybersecurity, compliance, and leadership development. Our experts hosted a 35-minute webinar to discuss the report’s findings and explore how healthcare organizations can move beyond basic regulatory adherence to achieve high reliability.
HealthStream released its 2026 Trends in Quality and Compliance report, which explores healthcare trends and challenges related to learner engagement, AI, cybersecurity, compliance, and leadership development.
Our experts hosted a 35-minute webinar to discuss the report’s findings and explore how healthcare organizations can move beyond basic regulatory adherence to achieve high reliability. Their conversation centered around critical challenges facing the industry, from the persistent struggle with learner engagement and the execution gap in compliance programs to the urgent need for practical leadership development and cybersecurity governance.
Watch the webinar to deepen your understanding of these trends and to learn strategies on how to modernize education, better equip frontline managers with the skills to coach their teams, and operationalize training to reduce risk.
Click here to access the full webinar.
Timestamp Overview
- [00:01:07] Speaker Introductions
- [00:02:40] 2026 Trends in Quality and Compliance Report Overview
- [00:03:53] Focus on Learner Engagement
- [00:11:28] Improving Compliance Education Programs
- [00:19:26] Leadership Development Challenges
- [00:28:32] Cybersecurity and AI in Healthcare
- [00:33:46] Final Takeaways and Conclusion
Full Transcription
Disclaimer: This transcription was written by AI, thanks to Descript.
[00:00:00] Caroline Yelverton: Hello everyone and thank you for joining us for today's webinar 2026 Trends in Quality and Compliance. My name is Caroline Yelverton, and I'm the director of Marketing for the Quality and Compliance Team at HealthStream. Before we get started, I'd like to cover a few housekeeping items. The beyond 24 console that you're looking at right now can be completely customized.
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[00:01:07] Speaker Introductions
[00:01:07] Caroline Yelverton: Today we are thrilled to be joined by two incredible experts from HealthStream – First Robyne Wilcox. Robyne is passionate about helping healthcare organizations mature into high reliability organizations.
[00:01:21] As Vice President of Quality, compliance and Culture at HealthStream, she leads strategic initiatives to improve quality outcomes, ensure compliance and foster continuous improvement. With a commitment to operational excellence, Robyne creates programs that empower people and minimize risk. And second, Jennifer Stoop.
[00:01:42] Jennifer is a product leader with over 20 years of healthcare experience specializing in safety and compliance. As senior product manager at HealthStream, she leads the development of innovative solutions that drive regulatory compliance and improve quality outcomes, focusing on building strong connections and understanding stakeholder needs. Jennifer. So, for those who work in healthcare, you make it your business to take care of people. And here at HealthStream, we make it our business to take care of healthcare. We are the number one advisor for developing and empowering people to deliver the highest quality of care, working side by side with over 5,000 healthcare organizations for over 30 years to cultivate a more competent and engaged workforce.
[00:02:40] 2026 Trends in Quality and Compliance Report Overview
[00:02:40] Caroline Yelverton: Today's discussion is based on our fifth annual trends in quality and compliance report. Every year, the HealthStream team asks the continuum of care with backgrounds in compliance, HR, education and learning quality, and it ITC about their priorities and challenges. Credible, now available for demo. For everyone today, you can access the report by either clicking on the link in your resection when you read these findings for 2026.
[00:03:15] The report identifies high reliability as a central goal for healthcare organization, but it also has number one, learner engagement remains the biggest training challenge. Two, compliance education programs need improvement. Three, organizations face a leadership readiness crisis. Four, cybersecurity training remains a top focus.
[00:03:37] Five training programs, shape retention and organizational success, and six raises hesitation. For today's webinar, we're going to focus mainly on the first four and we invite you to download the report to go deeper.
[00:03:53] Focus on Learner Engagement
[00:03:53] Caroline Yelverton: Let's start with number one. As stated in this year's report, learner engagement was named the top three.
[00:04:07] For the second year in a row with 41% of leaders calling it their greatest obstacle. Leaders also cited proving earner engagement and utilization remain the top concern going into 2026. So bringing it to our incredible panelists, Jen, Robyne, why do you think engagement remains such a persistent issue?
[00:04:28] Jennifer Stoop: Well, I think learner engagement being the number one challenge for the second year in a row is not really surprising to me. What we're seeing across healthcare organizations is a gap between how people are learning today and how training is still being delivered. Staff expect a modern learning experience and they want content that feels relevant, intuitive, and.
[00:04:57] Connected to their day-to-day work. When education feels static or repetitive, especially when it's the same course year after year, the same boring compliance topic year after year, it becomes something that they have to get through rather than something that they need to learn from at the same time.
[00:05:18] Our workforce is stretched incredibly thin. Frontline staff and managers are balancing clinical responsibilities, operational demands, and a lot of administrative work and education will often fall to the bottom of that list unless it is clearly supporting their ability to do their jobs more effectively.
[00:05:41] So when we talk about engagement, I think what we're really talking about. Is experience design. If learning feels modern, personalized and practical engagement will follow that. If it feels like a compliance checkbox engagement is going to drop.
[00:06:14] Robyne Wilcox: I thought that was a really good point. I also think what the engagement statistic is really signaling underneath the surface is that engagement isn't just a learning problem, right? It's a compliance execution problem.
[00:06:35] And I think it's an operational consistency problem. Ultimately, that makes it a risk problem. So, especially as organizations, they're growing and they're becoming decentralized and then they operate across hybrid environments so I start with scalability, right? We know high reliability depends on consistency.
[00:06:54] So when training pro programs aren't designed to scale across the enterprise, you're going to see inconsistent or interpretation of policies. You're going to see variable execution across locations and roles and you're going to find that your leaders have a limited visibility into whether or not the standards are actually being reinforced.
[00:07:15] So scalability isn't about a one size fits all training. It's about having a standardized foundation, clear regulatory expectations, but also role-based alignment with that training and enterprise level insight. And without that backbone, I think engagement really drops in compliant risk. It really increases.
[00:07:37] So when leaders say that engagement is their biggest challenge, I think what they're really saying is that they're concerned about execution and they're concerned about consistency. And so engagement is maybe the leading indicator, but scalability, that modern design that Jen just talked about and smart standardization.
[00:07:56] I mean, that's the solution, right? So the question isn't whether organizations are investing in their training. It's whether they're investing in a training system that's built for the way healthcare actually operates today.
[00:08:11] Caroline Yelverton: Thanks, Robyne. I want to build on some of the things you said.
[00:08:15] One of the reasons our readers, our customers, too, find this report specifically so valuable is because with each finding we're sharing best practices. We'd like to use today's webinar to discuss just a few of those recommendations. So back to the two of you. What are some practical steps that organizations can take to make training and learning more meaningful for their staff?
[00:08:38] Jennifer Stoop: Sure. There are some very practical steps that organizations can take right now that will make education more meaningful for staff First. Interactive learning matters when learners are asked to make decisions or respond to scenarios or even apply. Knowledge, retention will increase and engagement improves.
[00:09:02] Second role specific content is critical. A nurse manager, environmental services worker, a pharmacist, they should not be taking the exact same training. When training reflects real responsibilities, learners can immediately connect it to their work in their everyday life. Third, individualized learning plans help build accountability when staff understand what they need to complete and why it matters for their role and growth completion becomes more intentional.
[00:09:39] And fourth, real time progress tracking gives leaders insight. It allows organizations to identify disengagement early and intervene with support rather than waiting for deadlines. And finally, it's important to link training to career ladders in order to change the narrative. When education supports advancement, skill development, and leadership opportunities, it stops feeling like a requirement and will start to feel more like an investment.
[00:10:16] Robyne Wilcox: That's great. What I would add is I think that it's just important to reinforce what Jen was saying about high reliability organizations don't rely on single interventions. Training isn't a one and done thing, right? It's also important to remember that the goal isn't more and more training.
[00:10:36] It's about better outcomes. So your strategy should really be not focusing on just completions. It's more about comprehension. It's more about adoption. You shouldn't be focused on isolating training, that one and done type training, right? You want to have that continual reinforcement.
[00:10:56] And I think you want to move away from activity reporting, just checking the box, and you want to really focus on organizational alignment and you want to focus on execution, right? When that training is meaningful, I think engagement increases and then when engagement increases, your risk decreases.
[00:11:13] That's ultimately what we're driving for or striving for in high reliability.
[00:11:19] Caroline Yelverton: I love those two terms together. Alignment and execution. I want to talk about actually those a little bit more in relation to compliance.
[00:11:28] Improving Compliance Education Programs
[00:11:28] Caroline Yelverton: When we build on the importance of learner engagement, we can come to take away number two, compliance programs.
[00:11:37] What are the questions we ask year after year is for our respondents to rate their compliance education programs on a scale of one to 10, 10 being 100% effective. And this year our leaders rate their compliance programs as only moderately effective with an average score of 7.6 out of 10. When we think about compliance, we want tens, right?
[00:11:58] We want 100% effectiveness from our programs, but year after year, we're seeing our leaders rate their programs less than 10 and less than actually equates to more risk. So what separates a moderately effective program from a highly effective one? Let's start with you again, Jen.
[00:12:17] Jennifer Stoop: Well, I think leaders rating their compliance programs as moderately effective is actually an honest and encouraging signal.
[00:12:27] Most organizations have a strong foundation in place. The difference between moderate and highly effective programs really comes down to integration and application. Highly effective programs don't just deliver content. They change behavior. They are embedded in daily workflows, reinforced by managers and connected to real operational outcomes.
[00:12:54] They're also measurable organizations that continuously evaluate knowledge gaps, incident trends, and training effectiveness can quickly adapt.
[00:13:00] Compliance education becomes a living program rather than a static requirement. And finally, leadership visibility matters when leaders are talking about compliance as a core part of quality and safety.
[00:13:21] Staff understand that it is essential part of how care is delivered, not just a regulatory obligation.
[00:13:35] Robyne Wilcox: That's good. I like how you really focus on, it's not a regulatory obligation, right? It's more about outcomes. And I think if you look at that number, 7.6, at first glance might seem respectable, but when we're talking about compliance, it's that gap between 7.6 and 10 where that risk lives, right?
[00:13:54] And that means that policies aren't com are, are being completed, but they're not fully understood. And, and training maybe is a sign, but it's, it's not consistently applied. Staff might know the rules, but they're not confident about how they're applying those rules in real situations.
[00:14:10] So in other words, the gap isn't really about the effort, I think. I think it's about the execution and, and that's where learner engagement becomes really critical, right? That lower uneven engagement that widens the gap. When leaders consistently rate their programs.
[00:14:27] Below a 10. I don't think they're admitting failure. What they're really acknowledging is a reality. And, and the opportunity here is for that modern training that Jen talked about earlier. You really want to close that engagement gap, not just check the box and you want to improve alignment through consistency across your entire organization.
[00:14:46] You really want to move that compliance from. From that check the box. Just something that you have to do to building that individual alignment and confidence. Across your organization, right? What it looks like in one facility or in one department, it should look the same in in another department. I think that consistency is absolutely critical.
[00:15:08] Caroline Yelverton: Thanks, Robyne. Let's talk a little bit more about best practices. Again, in this go round, let's talk about improving the effectiveness of that compliance program. In the report we outline really two major areas that directly align with a centralized goal.
[00:15:25] Of achieving high reliability. First, regulatory accountability. Things like ensuring training meets requirements, structured systems to track completion rates, communications about reg changes, audit readiness, role-based accountability, but also number two, education meaning tailored resources based on setting and role accessible programs that reduce cognitive load and increase engagement, and ability to assess knowledge gaps.
[00:15:49] All of this and more rolls up into a word we've said already a couple times today. Outcomes and the report found two big things here. 55% of healthcare leaders feel their training programs do have an impact on employee retention. And another 64% feel they had an impact on business outcomes. There's some movement that can happen here if we're taking the right steps.
[00:16:12] So over to you, Jen. First, how can compliance and HR leaders work together to strengthen the compliance program?
[00:16:21] Jennifer Stoop: Well, to reposition mandatory training as a career investment compliance and HR leaders really need to work together in a more intentional manner. Reporting and analytics I think are foundational.
[00:16:36] Without clear data on completion competency and outcomes, it is difficult to demonstrate return on investment. When leaders can see how training connects to quality metrics, incident reduction in performance, it will become more meaningful. Defensibility is another key factor. Legally defensible education protects the organization and the employee.
[00:17:02] It ensures that staff have been properly trained and assessed in critical areas, which really is essential in today's regulatory environment. Most importantly, education has to focus on practical application, real world scenarios and skill-based learning, give staff tools that they can use immediately that builds their confidence and capability, which directly supports career growth.
[00:17:28] When HR and compliance align training with career pathways leadership development and performance goals, mandatory education becomes part of the professional development process rather than just a standalone requirement.
[00:17:47] Robyne Wilcox: You hit on an important point there about leadership development. I think leaders are critical to this, right? I don't think organizations strengthen their programs by just adding more courses. I think they do it by developing their leaders and showing their leaders how to promote and model compliance.
[00:18:02] Right? But, when? I think what we consistently see is that programs stall when their leaders see compliance as a one and done instead of a daily expectation. Or, when they don't have the skills to translate training into modeled behavior and setting a good example. I don't think it's a content issue.
[00:18:22] It's more about a leadership readiness issue. Compliance education is only as effective as the leaders reinforcing it, and I think leadership development closes that gap when you equip your leaders to have consistent conversations about expectations and you teach them to coach to policy in real scenarios.
[00:18:45] Just having those tough conversations and when you train them to recognize and correct that compliance drift. When folks are getting off track before those things become a risk. I think the real difference or one of the key differences between a moderately effective compliance program and a high reliability.
[00:19:06] Reliable one, a highly reliable one. I think it's leadership capability organizations that close that gap is when they invest, not just in compliance education, but in leaders who really know how to execute it.
[00:19:26] Leadership Development Challenges
[00:19:26] Caroline Yelverton: One of the key takeaways in the report is exactly some of what you're talking about, Robyne.
[00:19:31] It is a leadership readiness crisis. A little bit more. A lot of the respondents in this report noted that that piece leadership development at their organization specifically is severely lacking or non-existent. The report highlights a desire for leadership training that focuses on practical application or real world scenarios.
[00:19:56] Some leaders said, and I'll quote a couple of them. Leadership development for the management staff is severely lacking. Another one said, great initial training, but lacking in ongoing training. So it's quotes like this and different things that are in the paper. This feedback is not unique to our survey and this year's report either.
[00:20:13] And for years, and you'll see the stats on the screen here, managers and leaders have been stating and proving that lack of leadership development leads to tangible problems. Problems managers are failing within their first couple years of a new role. There's even a stat here from the Becker's healthcare article.
[00:20:32] It talks about 70% of strategic initiatives are failing. And these organizations are able to equate that back to the lack of proper training and leadership development for their managers. Our report does highlight a desire for leadership training that focuses on things like practical application and real world.
[00:20:49] Real-world scenarios. Can you expand on why this is essential? Robyne, let's start with you.
[00:20:57] Robyne Wilcox: Oh yeah. How many times have you seen someone promoted into a leadership role and they're just sort of left to figure it out themselves? Right. And you know, strong people, smart people with critical thinking skills, they're going to figure it out eventually.
[00:21:10] But it could be really clunky and it could take a lot of time. So I think when leaders say that they want training focused on practical application and real world scenarios. I think what they're really saying is, “I'm expected to execute, but I haven't been equipped to do this.”
[00:21:27] That gap shows up in comments like, “leadership development is severely lacking” or “great initial training, but no ongoing support.” We hear that a lot. This isn't isolated feedback. I mean, we see this as a pattern and I think it has real consequences. As you can see by the statistics here.
[00:21:47] And that really impacts culture. Culture isn't what's written in a policy or stated in a value or a mission statement. Culture is what leaders tolerate and what they enforce or reinforce and what they model every day. So if your leaders aren't trained to reinforce expectations consistently, or coach in real situations.
[00:22:12] Or address that compliance drift before it becomes a real risk. I think then even the best of design programs are going to stall. So when leadership development is missing, execution is going to suffer. And when execution suffers, I think culture really weakens. You don't get reliable execution without your prepared leaders, and you don't get that those prepared leaders by accident.
[00:22:41] This is an intentional thing that you must invest in from your rising leaders to your seasoned leaders all the way through.
[00:22:53] Jennifer Stoop: Yeah, I agree, Robyne. It's really important for you to have strong leaders within an organization driving that culture. There's obviously a strong demand for leadership training that focuses on practical application and real world scenarios that demand reflects a real operational need. Frontline leaders are the bridge between policy and practice.
[00:23:23] They are responsible for coaching staff addressing performance issues and ensuring procedures are followed consistently. Without practical leadership training, even well-designed compliance programs are going to break down at the unit level. When managers are not equipped to handle documentation, incident response, or regulatory expectations, compliance risk is going to increase.
[00:23:50] Inconsistent enforcement and unclear communication can lead to survey findings, safety events, and legal exposure. Effective leadership training reduces that risk. It will produce managers that make sound decisions, reinforce standards, and respond appropriately in complex situations. Ultimately, strong leadership competency supports both patient safety and organizational compliance.
[00:24:29] Caroline Yelverton: And let's take leadership to best practices. So let's talk about some of our best practices. Robyne, if you'll walk us through these, that'd be great.
[00:24:37] Robyne Wilcox: Yeah, these are some good ones. So first, I think you want to make sure that your program has personalized development pathways, right? You want to make sure that your leaders are developing the specific capabilities required for their role, for the scope of their role, and for their risk exposure, rather than just generic leadership content.
[00:24:57] And there's plenty of that out there, right? You want to align competencies to organizational initiatives. I think you want to directly connect leadership development to the priorities of your organization. Whether that's quality or safety, compliance risk, right? Workforce stability. I think you want to make sure that your program is giving them a way to directly apply their skills to your challenges.
[00:25:24] I mean, third, you want to offer hard skills and soft skills. You want to offer clinical and CE options? I think that you want to build well-rounded leaders, right? Who can manage people operations and risk, not just their technical responsibilities. And I think part of that is making sure that you're supporting ongoing professional development while reinforcing those real world leadership or clinical decision making skills.
[00:25:55] You want to make sure that. Again, whether it's a rising leader or a seasoned leader, they've got something because their, their challenges change as they're growing. Fourth is flexible, accessible learning options. You want to make sure that you're enabling learning that fits, fits into a leader's actual workflows across their shifts, across their departments.
[00:26:20] They're hybrid environments. You want to make sure that they've got training that meets them where they're at. And then finally, you want to provide continual feedback and coaching opportunities. You want to move development from that one and done episode, right? That one time training. It takes ongoing.
[00:26:37] Skill reinforcement as, as I said earlier, a rising leader is going to have a much different experience than a seasoned leader. And they're going to have different challenges and they're going to need different training. So having that continual feedback to let them practice, learn new skills and apply them is very important.
[00:26:56] Our program, for example, has an AI practice tool that allows leaders to practice those tough conversations in, in, in a safe environment before they're practicing on your real people. I think that continual feedback loop is absolutely, absolutely important for your program as well.
[00:27:21] Caroline Yelverton: Jen, anything to add?
[00:27:23] Jennifer Stoop: I would say as organizations implement best practices like personalized development pathways and flexible learning options, role-based accountability becomes even more important. Managers need transparency into their team's training, status, competency development, and risk areas.
[00:27:43] Without that visibility, it's difficult to intervene early or provide meaningful coaching. There's also a direct connection to patient safety and compliance when frontline managers are not properly trained for leadership roles. Gaps emerge in oversight documentation and staff performance. Those gaps can translate into safety events and regulatory deficiencies.
[00:28:10] Investing in manager development is one of the most effective ways to strengthen both compliance and quality outcomes.
[00:28:20] Caroline Yelverton: Well said. Yes. Well said. Some really wonderful takeaways on this slide. Thank you. Okay, so our last takeaway that we're going to talk about today.
[00:28:32] Cybersecurity and AI in Healthcare
[00:28:32] Caroline Yelverton: You, you cannot talk about 2026 without talking about cybersecurity.
[00:28:36] And AI report expands in many directions about these topics. But for the sake of today, we're just going to talk about risk and training. When asked about their concerns for cyber threats in 2026. Over half. 53% of our 670 plus leaders said that they are concerned about data privacy and security. And the headlines reflect this concern.
[00:28:57] So with growing threats comes change. Jen, Robyne, what does responsible governance look like right now in healthcare settings and, and what role should compliance leaders be playing in its development?
[00:29:12] Jennifer Stoop: Well, with more than half of leaders expressing concern about data privacy and security, responsible governance has become a central priority in a healthcare setting.
[00:29:24] Responsible government means establishing clear policies, consistent oversight, and shared accountability across departments. Compliance leaders play a critical role in shaping this framework. They help define expectations, ensure regulatory alignment, and support. Ongoing monitoring governance is not just about policy creation, it's about embedding data privacy, cybersecurity and ethical technology use into everyday workflows, and that requires continuous education, clear communication at every level of the organization.
[00:30:05] Robyne Wilcox: Yeah, well said, Jen. I think compliance leaders are sort of that connective tissue. Between all the departments, legal, IT, and clinical operations. It's not just theoretical. I think it's so important to operationalize or automate governance as much as you can and make sure that standard is expressed and communicated through proper training, through enforcing that accountability and through continual reinforcement.
[00:30:38] So expectations are always understood and they're defensible, right? If you're surveyed. So, I think it's absolutely important that you see yourself as that connective tissue.
[00:30:55] Caroline Yelverton: Thanks, Robyne. Okay. So one more best practice to share today and then we'll take it on home.
[00:31:01] So we said to our survey respondents, given these threats, what is that number one tactic you've seen make a positive impact? What's working? And without a doubt, our leader said education for increasing awareness was the best tactic. Whether that's effective phishing simulations from a reputable vendor or partnering with a vendor or partner to provide awareness education to all staff.
[00:31:25] Over half our survey respondents agreed on this B best practice. So thinking about the relationship between different departments, how can compliance IT, HR leaders collaborate more effectively to address the challenges of cybersecurity AI and, and these risks to employee and patient safety?
[00:31:47] Jennifer Stoop: I think to address cybersecurity and AI related risks, collaboration between compliance, IT and HR must be intentional and ongoing.
[00:32:00] Education's one of the most effective tools we have phishing simulators, scenario-based cybersecurity training. Role specific guidance can all help staff recognize and respond to all sorts of threats. These efforts should be tailored to different learner levels from frontline staff to the executives.
[00:32:24] Increasing awareness across the organization creates a shared sense of responsibility. When employees understand how their actions impact data security and patient safety, they're going to become more active participants in risk reduction rather than passive recipients of a policy.
[00:32:47] Robyne Wilcox: Yeah, I think you're absolutely right, Jen. I think education, right? It's a great place to start. It's the right place to start. And I think it helps build a common baseline of understanding across the enterprise how data is used, where the risk lives, what good judgment looks like.
[00:33:04] So I think education is absolutely the best place to start. And I think as organizations are looking ahead into this year, I think making ai a core focus of their strategy and training isn't really optional, right? I think training absolutely goes hand in hand with that strategy.
[00:33:21] So I think anyone who's investing early in awareness and education are really better to not only protect themselves, right, but to leverage AI as part of their initiatives in 2026.
[00:33:36] Caroline Yelverton: There's so much good information in this report. We've touched on what just feels like a lot, but also just the surface level of what's in this report.
[00:33:46] Final Takeaways and Conclusion
[00:33:46] Caroline Yelverton: So as we come to a close, we do want to highlight some final takeaways for our audience, if you would, Jen and Robyne walk us through these and their potential impact on organizational reliability in 2026.
[00:34:00] Jennifer Stoop: Sure. So first, compliance programs must be current, adaptable and measurable regulations evolve technology advances and workforce expectations.
[00:34:13] Change. Programs that can adapt and demonstrate impact will be the most effective. Second, educating all staff about cybersecurity and AI is no longer optional. It is essential. Data privacy, security awareness, and understanding the accuracy and limitations of AI outputs are now core competencies in healthcare.
[00:34:38] Organizations that prioritize this education will be better positioned to protect both their patients and their workforce.
[00:34:50] Robyne Wilcox: All right. I think that's it. I'm going to take us home with the last two takeaways here. I think investing in leadership, we've, we've underscored that a number of times today, and I absolutely think it's, it's critical, right? I think, you want to make sure that you're investing in. Leadership development that's for real world readiness.
[00:35:10] And inclusivity, it's not really optional anymore. And you want to invest in every stage of your leaders. Your leaders are being asked to do more and more at every level, from the rising leader to the seasoned leader. And that requires practical skills, consistent judgment. And the ability to lead inclusively, that's, that's a big word for us now across all roles and locations and care settings, right?
[00:35:36] And so I really think when leaders are equipped to do that, well, then you're going to find that engagement increases, execution improves, and risk gets lower, which is absolutely critical. And then finally, I think training remains. One of the most powerful tools that organizations have to retain talent and achieve their business goals.
[00:35:58] We hear that over and over every year. It shows up in our report every year as being a very important piece of the puzzle. Right. But, it's absolutely true. I think well-designed training, builds confidence and it creates clarity. And it supports career mobility, right? I think when you really invest in your people, they invest in you.
[00:36:24] And so I think the common thread that we've seen across everything today is that execution is really the key concern. It's the underlying issue. It's the underlying challenge I think that we want to address and achieve. So if there's one message, I think that I would leave today, is that the path to that stronger culture that lowers risk to better outcomes.
[00:36:47] I think it runs directly through your leadership readiness and a scalable system that is consistent across your organization is really what delivers that meaningful training and prepares your leaders and your people to achieve that high reliability.
[00:37:11] Caroline Yelverton: Robyne, Jen, thank you so, so much for your time today. What a great session. Really helping our, our friends in healthcare on the call plan their priorities for the year ahead. For those listening as a reminder, we're happy to share. The information that we've been discussing today is based on our fifth annual trends in quality and compliance report.
[00:37:32] Now available for download for everyone on the call today. You can access this report by either clicking in the resources section or by visiting healthstream.com and navigating to our resources page. At this time, we do have a poll question open. We hope you've seen that poll question and. You've seen it appear on your screen.
[00:37:56] It's really asking you about your 2026 initiatives. What's on your mind? What would you like to discuss a little more with HealthStream? Is it safety and compliance, policy management, leadership development, cybersecurity? Let us know what your top priority is for you right now today, and someone from HealthStream will be in touch.
[00:38:14] Thank you again to our fantastic panelists for today's wonderful presentation, and thank you to everyone for joining us. We hope you'll share this information with others at your organization as we work together to improve staff engagement and care outcomes. With that said, this concludes our webinar.
[00:38:31] Have a great day, everyone.
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