Providing Excellent Service and Audit Preparation
As the Director of Training & Excellence (T&E) at Compass, I am always evaluating our systems, asking two questions: do we have the best-trained team members and are we providing excellent service? I am passionate about equipping our staff to do their job with confidence by making sure our training programs are up-to-date and thorough. With the best-trained staff, I also make sure we are being accountable to all stakeholders by having the most effective systems in place. By doing both primary functions of training and quality assurance, I am confident that we are providing excellent service while maintaining the presence to exceed any audit conducted upon us. How are you preparing for an audit?
Compass has several practices that assure me that we are ready for an audit. I have a team that focuses on the review of our systems, we have practices that the operation teams maintain routinely and an intranet system that provides reporting, document storage, and a communication portal.
Within T&E my team focuses on the requirements placed on us and that we build into our systems. This includes the review of our daily service notes, our home visits, client and staff connects, our attendance, response time to crisis, report submissions, document storage, and other data points as assigned. Fortunately, we use Quick Solve Plus (QSP) as our management database making most of these above-mentioned tasks as easy as running a report which makes preparing for an audit that much easier!
It was not too long ago that we would have a team of temporarily assigned quality assurance members travel to all offices to review hard copy paperwork, do interviews with staff, and visit client homes. This was very time consuming, and although a successful process too, it was not cost-effective. Compass has worked hard at moving many of our staff tracking and document responsibilities into QSP for a quicker and more consistent means of making sure we are meeting our expectations.
Meeting Regulations
The first area that we develop systems for is to confirm that we meet regulations and contracted expectations. Our systems with QSP have staff and client portals. Within the staff member portal, we track all pre-employment requirements. Employees will receive reminders to keep their documentation requirements updated as some might expire. In addition, we monitor all staff training. The T&E department will assign training through QSP based on the job title. If additional training is required, it may be added to the initial training list. Another area tracked with the staffing portal is communication connection with the staff; capturing coachings, attendance, time off, performance, and follow-up needs. With this data captured within this portal, many different reports offer confirmation that expectations are being met, or where attention is needed. These reports make preparing for an audit happen with just a few clicks!
Under the client portal, all pertinent information on all clients is captured. From the detailed client information, our system allows us to keep track of all communication and connections that are made with the client, to include management contacts, medical appointments, and special needs which might be long- or short-term requirements. All the data can be updated as permissions are set for the appropriate team members. Based on this data, other areas of our intranet system are updated. Our recruitment, training, and emergency information is updated as client data is changed based on needs. From this portal, we run reports such as home visit records, daily service notes, training tools, scheduling needs, and the current client’s well-being.
Other portals used within QSP include scheduling, timecards, recruiting, training, forms, and EVV. Everyone at Compass has influence into our intranet within QSP. This has become our ‘one-stop shop’ for conducting business, storing data, and communicating with each other. Based on one’s permission to view data and run reports, managers can evaluate how their teams are doing on expected outcomes. With the development of our systems, within minutes the evaluations are made thus allowing managers to focus on areas that are not meeting standards.
Mobile Convenience
QSP is also available as a mobile application. Although all users have access to mobile use, our field staff find the mobile application convenient and easy to use. Here they can review their own schedules, clock in and out of schedules, complete their service notes, review the client’s basic information, complete trainings assigned to them specifically, communicate with other team members as well as many other features. All clients have a computer tablet in their homes, making access to pertinent information easy to review and update.
Although I have spent a lot of time sharing our use of QSP and its reporting abilities, we still utilize supervisors in the field to have additional reviews of our services and support. Our supervisors will visit every client home twice a year to have a personal conversation and review with the client. We believe it’s still essential to have a connection from someone removed from the day-to-day operation as an added layer to our systems. These supervisors will update QSP to further strengthen our reporting process.
In summary, I would like to state that as someone that participated in the physical quality assurance data review and interviews, I am thankful for the continued development of our systems. We hold the integrity of our promises with high regard in which our systems make it possible for thorough reviews of such expectations. Our systems play a very important role in preparing for an audit but it is also important to acknowledge the commitment that our management team makes to hold each other accountable in the pursuit of excellence.
This article was written by Rhonda McGlashan who is the Director of Training and Excellence at Compass, LLC. Learn more about Compass consulting services here.
