`Training buddies’ can improve morale
After new patient access hires at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, OH, learn the basics of the registration system, they’re given a short period of hands-on training by a supervisor. Next, he or she is introduced to a "training buddy."
"The training buddy shadows the new hire for two to four weeks, depending on how quickly they catch on. During that time, they are pretty much attached at the hip," says Michael Hester, vice president of revenue cycle in the finance department.
In some ways, team members know more about what the new hire’s job will entail than the department’s trainers do. "They do it day and day out and know all the idiosyncrasies," says Hester. "This is literally on-the-job training. It’s what the job actually looks like."
Next, new hires are given an exit test, which involves a supervisor observing the employee register patients for a day. "In 90 days, we do a follow-up to be sure they are still adhering to the policies," says Hester. If the employee isn’t performing well, he or she is again paired with the training buddy for another three weeks.
Only about 5% of employees fail to pass the exit test. "Unfortunately, we had to let a couple of them go, because they didn’t catch on even after repeat training," says Hester. "It’s not an environment for everybody."
Training buddies report asking patients for money is, by far, the hardest challenge for the new hires. "There are always questions that come up that nobody really expects. Every situation has something new to it," says Hester.
New hires might be completely comfortable asking a "patient" for a copay in the training room, but falter when asking the parent of a sick child. "No matter how much practice you have in the training environment, it’s different out in the real world," says Hester.
The training buddy will step in and demonstrate how to respond, if the patient reacts poorly to being asked for payment.
The new role has made the "training buddies" feel more professional. "One person recently asked if this was a path to leadership, and it is," says Hester. "Helping new hires is people management."
Teamwork is unexpected benefit
The training buddy program came about after the department learned that the number of patient access trainers would be cut.
"Compared to previous methods, this is actually more expensive," says Hester. "Prior to the buddy program, costs were limited to a trainer: a person whose only role was training staff. Our current cost is the buddy spending entire shifts for two to six weeks of constant, one-on-one training on the actual floor."
However, the new program gets better results because there is much more hands-on training when compared to the previous system. "Unfortunately, with a limited number of trainers, and the trainers not dedicated to just patient access, very little time was actually spent in a hands-on environment," he explains. "Instead, it was done in a classroom environment with several other people for two days."
Improved morale was an unexpected side benefit. "The new employee has a much better handle on what they are doing," Hester reports. "People are more invested because they feel more like a team."
The patient access department at Cincinnati (OH) Children’s Hospital Medical Center has had a preceptor program in place since 2009, based on the hospital’s clinical preceptor program. "We use the same process and methods, minus the clinical piece," says Sherri E. Kissinger, CHAM, manager of patient access.
Previously, new hires received some general classroom and computer training, "but when they arrived at their actual site or clinic, they would be on their own," says Kissinger.
As part of the preceptor program, new hires take an online survey that tells them what kind of learning style they have: visual, aural, read/write, kinesthetic or multimodal. (To access the survey, go to: http://www.vark-learn.com/english/index.asp.) "The preceptor can then adapt their way of teaching to the employee’s learning style," she says. The preceptor can allow for hands-on-learning for kinesthetic learners, or allow for note taking, if they are a read/write learner.
Employees must be high-performing to be chosen as preceptors, but patience and good communication skills are other important qualities. "We try to have a preceptor on every shift," says Kissinger. "We might have two or three on the first shift, but we also try to have at least one on the second shift as well." Preceptors give her feedback on how new hires are doing.
One challenge is to keep new hires with the same preceptor, which isn’t always possible depending on the shift.
"There are multiple ways to do the same task and get the same results," Kissinger explains. "One person might show a different method from someone else, which may add some confusion."
