If you ask the majority of businesses or nonprofits how they keep employee credentials updated, they will often tell you with a file cabinet, an excel spreadsheet and email. Ask those same people how sure they are that all credentials are compliant the answer will be, “I doubt it” or “I don’t know”.
You are already working hard but can’t keep up
It isn’t that the people responsible for credentialing aren’t working hard to keep everything updated, it is that the tools that are being used are antiquated and make it almost impossible to be sure. Take a Registered Nurse for example. A RN has licenses, certifications, immunizations, background checks, and other various human resource documents that are required to be up to date and each has a different expiration date. In all, it could be over 20 different credentials that need to be managed and updated. Not only does the person responsible for keeping employee credentials updated need to be on their game but the employee themselves needs to know that her credentials are expiring so she can get a new one. Sometimes, an employee credential takes weeks or months for their credential to get renewed.
The amount of work this takes gets compounded when an organization has 100 or more nurses which equals over 2,000 credentials to keep updated. A task that requires automation. That is why the old school method of a spreadsheet, a file cabinet and emails just doesn’t work.
A 21st century solution
What is the 21st century solution to keeping employee, vendor, or subcontract credentials updated? Software like Credential Agent. Credential Agent gives both the HR department and the employee the tools to let automation do the work. Credential Agent is software as a service that sends out constant reminders at 90, 60, 30, 15, 7 and 1 day to both the employee and HR staff before a credential is expiring. Credential Agent stores the credential, its issue and expiration date, and other important information. It allows for reports to be run so that HR can easily see when someone is out of compliance. Credential Agent automates the work so that HR can focus on the problem few who haven’t gotten their credentials updated and ensures that if someone asks you if everyone is compliant, you can say yes.
What if someone gets infected
Ask yourself this. If JCAHO, your client, your insurance carrier or someone else came in and did an audit, would you feel comfortable that you are 100% compliant? What would be the cost to your organization if you lose a contract or have an expensive insurance case or worse, someone get infected?
For peanuts per employee, you can have credentialing software that ensures you are compliant. Most organizations are reluctant to admit that their employee, vendor, or subcontractor credentialing process is antiquated but what happens if one of your employees gets the Measles because their MMR shot wasn’t updated or worse, if the patent gets it from the nurse?