Case Study

Published November 2007

Ascension Health Maximizes Blended Learning Approach

Robb Powell

Here’s how learning used to happen at Ascension Health, the nation’s largest nonprofit health system: Three to five weeks before a process’ launch, training staff members would jet around the country, visiting every facility.

At each location, they’d get everybody (ranging from three to 500 people) in an assembly room and demonstrate the new process on a stage for a couple of hours. A few weeks later, the process would go live, and employees would struggle to remember what they’d seen once but never practiced at all.

Then, the process would start anew at the next facility.
There had to be a better way and today, there is. Through a blended approach, Ascension Health now coordinates learning across its 67 hospitals in 20 states. The health system’s learning program still uses traditional, instructor-led classrooms where that format makes sense.

Now, though, these classes are mixed in with online courses, in synchronous and asynchronous formats, and backed by an online resource library, as well as sophisticated testing and tracking.

In the last five years, Ascension Health staffers have completed and tracked more than 3.5 million learning activities online, which never would have been possible the way things used to be. Ascension Health’s 130,000 employees and affiliated clinicians have fundamentally changed the way they share best practices, clinical information, implementation strategies and more.

Progress Toward an Ambitious Goal
Ascension Health’s progress with its enterprise learning program has been a boon to the organization. That’s especially true in light of its ambitious strategic direction, which calls for health care that works, is safe and leaves no one behind. As part of that mission, Ascension Health set a challenging goal: have no preventable injuries or deaths by July 2008.

It’s a sweeping effort at clinical transformation that affects all hospitals and related health facilities within Ascension Health. Areas that must be addressed include culture, infrastructure and collaboration.

The organization identified eight priorities for action, including preventable mortality and areas such as adverse drug events, falls and surgical complications. “Alpha” sites in the system are developing the best clinical and implementation practices. They’re also responsible for training the rest of the organization.

Enterprise learning is playing a vital role in Ascension Health’s quest, enabled by a platform that incorporates SumTotal’s learning management system, which Gradepoint Enterprise Learning has configured for Ascension Health. That platform, known as the managed learning environment (MLE), allows collaboration among clinical leaders on design and implementation of best practices courses, launches and tracks learning programs based on these new protocols, and assesses and measures all organizational learning.

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Executive Search

ESI International Director, eContent Strategy
01/14/2010
The Director, eContent Strategy is responsible for providing ESI�s executive team with strategic-level direction to implement alternative blended learning delivery formats to our worldwide client base.

Senior Manager, Global Learning & Talent Development
11/19/2009
Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu (DTT) is an organization of member firms devoted to excellence in providing professional services and advice. We are focused on client service through a global strategy executed locally in nearly 150 countries.

Director, Leadership & Organizational Development Parkland Health & Hospital System
10/26/2009
Parkland Health & Hospital System (www.parklandhospital.com) located in Dallas, Texas has been voted one of "America's Best Hospitals" by U.S. News & World Report for 16 consecutive years and recently named one of the "Top 100 Hospitals to Work For" by Nursing Professionals Magazine.