In healthcare, you don’t get do-overs. A big part of your job is making split-second decisions, and you must be confident those decisions are the right ones. When lives hang in the balance, it is critical to have thorough healthcare policies and procedures in an automated, centralized system place.
Healthcare policies play an important role in effective decision-making within healthcare organizations. Policy management is often a complicated job, and if the resulting procedures are not clear and transparent, staff members and patients will suffer the consequences. Instead of leaving the “what-ifs” to chance, build healthcare policies that empower your workforce to be confident in the face of an emergency and fearless in delivering the highest levels of patient care.
There’s a huge importance of comprehensively writing policies and procedures in healthcare organizations like yours. The biggest reasons for having detailedcomprehensive, well-written healthcare policies and procedures are twofold:
A good policy can reduce your legal liabilities.
Protect public health and patient safety with your organization’s policies.
Hit the ground running and ensure a smooth and seamless policy-writing process by preparing in advance.
As a good starting point, identify the healthcare professionals in your organization that can guide and review each policy you create.
Compile any statistical data that drives your decision-making process. This will help with drafting care policies and streamlining compliance.
If you have existing policies and procedures, review them now. If the format of the policies isn’t working, now is the time to make a change.
To create comprehensive and effective policies, you must first understand the current policies in place. Analyze what is or isn’t working.
Time to dive in and create in-depth policies and procedures that support the goals of your healthcare organization.
If you’re updating an existing policy, look for anything that could be misunderstood or misinterpreted. For new policies, write out step-by-step actions in easy-to-understand language.
It’s wise to reference the policies of other healthcare organizations, but remember that originality is crucial to making your healthcare policy the most effective for your organization.
Remember that you aren’t writing for an academic journal or a medical record. You’re writing for your staff members, so add language that is easy to read and understand.
Every policy should be accompanied by a SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, time-based) goal. This ensures your policies are realistic, meaningful, and easily tracked.
Remember these pieces of advice when crafting your healthcare policies and procedures:
Step back and examine the overarching goal. Why are you writing these policies? Keep that purpose in mind throughout the policy-drafting process.
Use language that is concise, simple, and easy to digest. Your policies must be clear and understandable to those who will be expected to implement them.
Look for a policy manager that specializes in healthcare and understands your needs. The right platform centralizes your info, making distribution, reviews, and updates easy.
Your policies are drafted and ready. Now what?
Try to limit reviewers to one proofreader and one expert from each service line, including subject matter experts, HR, and your organization’s legal counsel.
Review all new and updated policies with staff members, answer their questions, and allow them to have input on finalizing the language of certain procedures.
Review your organization’s policies and procedures on an annual basis. Ensure you’re meeting the goals for each policy and adjust any goals as needed.
Review your organization’s policies and procedures on an annual basis. Ensure you’re meeting the goals for each policy and adjust any goals as needed.
Imagine a tool that lets you automate your workflow, search documents on demand, and secure attestation to make policy management simple and easy. With Policy Manager from HealthStream, you can get a fully automated experience that offers peace of mind for you and empowerment for your staff.
Ready to start tracking, managing, and distributing policy documentation confidently and accurately? Learn how you can use Policy Manager to easily search and access documents, enhance policy workflow and automation, and more. Schedule your demo now and let us walk you through the process.
As a Joint Commission-accredited, dual diagnosis adult substance abuse treatment program, Bridges of Hope provides a comprehensive and integrated.
Automating policy management is the best way to achieve compliance and ensure that your staff have access to the very latest regulations.
Automating policy management will certainly help to reduce risks and improve compliance. The process may feel overwhelming at first. However; these.
High Point Treatment Center is a substance abuse and mental health provider of care with 11 inpatient and outpatient locations.
Rose encouraged leaders planning 2024 initiatives to consider whether or not they had adequately resourced their initiatives and encouraged them to.
Get the latest industry news
Corporate Address:
500 11th Avenue North
Suite 1000
Nashville, TN 37203
HealthStream’s learning management system and comprehensive suite of competency management tools empower your healthcare workforce to deliver the best patient care. View All Learning & Performance
HealthStream offers performance learning management solutions to help develop your healthcare staff into leaders and reduce turnover. View All Products
HealthStream works with healthcare organizations to create engaging and high-quality training videos for your staff and management. View All Products
Improve care quality and save money by making informed decisions about your healthcare facility and staff with HealthStream's reporting analytics solution. View All Products
HealthStream's proven methods for the improvement and overall engagement of your healthcare staff foster a positive workplace and increase retention rates. View All Products
When 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 & Compliance
Be confident in your staff’s ability to reduce risk by providing compliance training that changes behavior. View All Products
Develop next-level people for next-level care by prioritizing quality and safety improvements. View All Products
Establish a culture of belonging with education supporting DEI, wellness, engagement, and leadership development. View All Products
Utilize patient access solutions and advanced reimbursement solutions to manage clinical denials and improve your organization’s reimbursement strategy. View All Reimbursement
Expand the decision-making skills and effectiveness of your healthcare workforce with HealthStream's clinical development programs and services. View All Clinical Development
Learn about our advanced resuscitation training solutions. Our solutions are designed to help improve patient outcomes. View All Products
Unlocking the full potential of clinicians goes beyond aspiration – it’s a commitment we embody. Our competency development solutions help personalize learning for every clinician so you can confidently bridge the gap between theory and practice for your nurse residents while meeting the unique development needs of your seasoned clinician. View All Products
Enhance maternal & child nursing care with solutions focused on improving the quality of care for mothers, infants, and children. View All Products
Address staffing challenges, standardize orientation and onboarding, and deliver an effective training program for your team to easily achieve and maintain certification with our critical, emergency, and acute care solutions. View All Products
We understand the critical importance of earning and maintaining your patients' trust in the delivery of exceptional sedation and surgical outcomes. As a premier provider of healthcare education, we are committed to empowering you in promoting safer, more successful outcomes for each and every patient, without exception. View All Products
Our solutions are meticulously designed to cater to the diverse needs of patients, healthcare professionals, and organizations. Within this innovative framework, we have curated specialized subsets of solutions aimed at addressing the ever-evolving challenges faced by individuals dealing with illnesses or chronic conditions. View All Products
Make sure your healthcare staff can schedule out appointments and work schedules with ease using HealthStream's line of software solutions. View All Scheduling
Healthcare workforce management is essential. We provide advanced scheduling solutions for organizations to solve issues such as nurse retention View All Products
Comprehensive, industry-leading provider onboarding and credentialing software that validate health outcomes and support provider assessment. View All Credentialing
Our affordable CVO credentialing services establish patient safety by enabling primary source verification for your healthcare organization. View All Products
Integrate with Epic to validate and add new providers directly to your provider master file. View All Products