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Thank you!

As we turn the calendar to 2024, the Accreditation Department wants to thank team members for your many contributions over the past year to support the successful launch of PolicyTech, the University Medical Center’s new document management tool and repository for policies, procedures, and guidelines.

The University Medical Center’s policies, procedures, and guidelines are foundational to our regulatory readiness and supporting patient safety and quality care, treatment, and services. Sixty percent of Joint Commission citations are related to non-compliance with institutional policies and procedures. Due to your efforts and support, we’ve made significant progress in improving our compliance with the document management principles defined in Clinical and Operational Document Management Medical Center Policy. 

Quality control and compliance improvements include:

• Instituted a centralized repository and system to provide a single source of truth for policies and procedures
• Imported over 2,900 documents
• Archived over 500 documents (17% of documents) that were either outdated, unnecessary, or misaligned/duplicative of existing Medical Center policy and procedures
• Centralized management practices increased collaboration across disciplines and care areas on document development to improve consistency of care for patients
  • Transfusion Safety Officer identified existing blood documents misaligned with existing practices and worked with appropriate parties to resolve conflicts, streamline content, and confirm all documents aligned with current processes 
  • Accreditation and Pharmacy identified existing clinical guidelines and procedures with medication content that needed review by the Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee
• Automated version control and audit trail for compliance and regulatory needs 
• Each document assigned an owner within the system that is responsible for keeping the document in alignment with policy and regulations

We Heard You!

We understand learning a new system takes time and practice, and that ongoing feedback from end-users is essential to our continuous improvement efforts. We have appreciated your suggestions and want to highlight our shared accomplishments:  

• Access improvements:
  • DUO requirement removed
  • Expanded read-only access for users on an Academic network
  • Collaborated with Help Desk to create an algorithm to resolve IT access issues and developed a guide for Troubleshooting University Medical Center PolicyTech Access

• Search improvements and support:
  • Set default landing page to “search” and default search parameters to title/keywords 
  • Updated folder structure to reduce layers/clicks when browsing
  • Added and continue to add keywords upon request
  • Clarified and continue to update titles upon request and during review
  • Provided search tutorials to various committees
  • Published a Search Tip Sheet; assigned to all PolicyTech users
  • Created weekly office hours to answer any questions

We Still Want to Hear From You!

We know we still have more work to do! We will be sending out a brief survey in the coming weeks to learn more about your experience using PolicyTech to inform future improvements.  

Have questions you want to ask in person? Join us for Weekly Office Hours via Webex on Wednesdays, 2-3 p.m.