Like many other University offices, the Department of Neurology (Anschutz Medical Campus) manages a number of educational events to support faculty, staff, and student professional development and activities. Neurology events may be weekly, monthly, or annual; they range from Grand Rounds to faculty meetings to research conferences; they may require formal documentation of attendance per continuing medical education (CME) or other accreditation requirements; and, they typically strive to elicit participant feedback.
Whatever their differences, such events all had one challenge in common: a time-consuming, effort-intensive, paper-dependent sign-in process that created inefficiencies and inaccuracies in a number of critical areas.
Fortunately, the Neurology Information Technology (IT) and Education teams were up to the challenge. As Director of Finance and Administration, Kathy Illian was familiar with the sign-in and feedback problems … and how much they cost the University. Kathy and colleagues David Vu, Zachrey Baud, and Alina Rich determined to transform these problems into fast and friendly business processes for their faculty and staff.
The team developed an Education Management System (EMS) that relies on badges and enables electronic storing of attendance and feedback. No more long lines as people waited their turn to (illegibly) sign their names. No more lost sign-in sheets. No more verification of attendance or manual tabulation of feedback.
Initial cost savings to the department are estimated at over $2,000 per year. The ultimate savings – after all events transition to EMS – are anticipated to be almost five times that amount annually.
The EMS has become so popular that Neurology has decided to create a service center in order to provide this and other database-driven advancements to other departments.
For an overview of the initiative, watch their short video. Or check out Kathy's submission to the CU Shared Practices (CUSP) website.