Healthcare LMS

If you're in the healthcare industry, you know that its processes and standards are detailed (sometimes nuanced) and they evolve regularly. And, if you run your own practice, you'll agree that occasionally taking physicians and staff off work to train them on the nuances and changes is vital for your business.

Regulations such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) stipulate all health care practices follow proper and up-to-date clinical guidelines and best practices.

However, selecting one healthcare learning management system (LMS) from among hundreds on the market can be overwhelming. That's why we've created this Buyer's Guide to detail everything you need to know before making the final purchase decision.

Here's what we'll cover:

What Is Healthcare LMS Software?
Common Features of Healthcare LMS Software
What Type of Buyer Are You?
Benefits of Healthcare LMS Software
Key Considerations

What Is Healthcare LMS Software?

 

Healthcare LMSs are software platforms designed to help medical practices manage their online learning programs, without removing them from their core responsibility (i.e., patient care) for too long. The software allows users to build relevant training modules for internal use by physicians and other medical staff.

Administrators can create course catalogs, schedule and assign courses and track course completion status. Physicians and other staff can view their course catalog, enroll or cancel a course offering and launch e-learning modules.

Track course completion status in Docebo LMS software

Common Features of Healthcare LMS Software

Vendors offer a variety of functionalities in their healthcare LMS solutions. However, most offer some or all of the following capabilities:

Compliance and certification management	Allows small practices to track the learning requirements and compliance of physicians and staff. Administrators can set up, track and manage certification programs.
Learning management	Allows users to organize and simplify training or learning modules based on their specific learning requirements. Includes processes such as managing user details, scheduling and tracking course enrollment, distributing content, tracking course completion status etc.
Content authoring	Allows users to build courses using in-house generated content.
Videoconferencing	Allows users to collaborate, learn and share insights and knowledge by hosting webinars and supporting the learning objectives of peers.
Mobile learning	Allows users to access the software and complete courses on mobile devices, such as phones or tablets.
Social learning	Allows users to utilize features such as live chat, content ratings, course sharing and commenting, course discussions, email and text notifications and individual learner blogs to interact with one another within the LMS.

To further understand these features and learn about LMS vendors, call our advisors at 855-998-8505 for free, no-obligation help. They'll help you narrow down your options by listening to your requirements and recommending the best-suited solutions for your practice.

What Type of Buyer Are You?

Before you start evaluating healthcare LMS software options, you'll want to know what buyer category you belong to. Most buyers will fall into one of the below categories:

• Solo physicians: These buyers have simple requirements and are mainly looking to keep up with the latest health management techniques and compliance regulations. Due to relatively smaller budgets, they should start with a best-of-breed solution offering functions such as compliance and certification and learning management.

• Small practices (three to five physicians): These buyers have relatively more medical staff. As a result, they may require additional features such as content authoring and videoconferencing, based on specific learning and collaboration needs.

• Medium and large practices (more than five physicians): These buyers typically need a complete healthcare LMS suite. They need a single system that controls all their learning, development and compliance needs. They will likely prefer a system that centralizes all information and may even integrate with their other existing systems, such as their electronic medical records (EMR) software.

Benefits of Healthcare LMS Software

While some of the benefits of healthcare LMS software should be clear from our discussion above, we've called out the most notable ones below:

• Better learning and development management: A medical practice's most important assets are its physicians and medical staff. The quality of patient care depends on the physician's knowledge and the staff's expertise. Healthcare LMS systems help physicians and medical staff to constantly develop their knowledge and skills, leading to better patient care.

• Quick deployment of the latest training material: New clinical research and technological advancements are changing healthcare procedures, best practices and regulations frequently. To stay updated, healthcare courses and training materials need regular updates. Healthcare LMS system helps medical practices achieve this task.

Key Considerations

Here are some important questions to consider before you purchase health care LMS software:

• Is the software scalable? Ask your shortlisted vendors about the scalability of their products. Scalability becomes essential as your practice grows, and the software should be able to handle your expanding needs. For instance, if you plan to hire more physicians and staff in future, the software must be able to handle additional users and the increased amount of data/content, as well as align specialty-specific users with relevant content.

• Does the vendor offer customer support? Find out whether the vendor offers support 24/7, only during business hours or not at all. In addition, ask about available support options, such as email, phone or live chat. As you're mostly busy providing patient care, you won't have much time to go through LMS software user manuals to solve your technical queries. So, efficient customer support is critical.