A New Model of Care

How Humber River Regional Hospital

implemented a Blended E-Learning Program
using a customized Learning Management
System to further enhance their Workplace
of Distinction
Table of Contents

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

The Anatomy of a Blended E-Learning Program . . . . . . . . . 4

Vital Signs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

The DNA for Success . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

A Knowledge Transfusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Introduction

Humber River Regional Hospital (HRRH) is a primary and acute care facility
committed to providing the highest quality of patient and family care needs, safely
and respectfully, within the diverse urban community of North Central Toronto.
HRRH’s dynamic and evidence based organizational culture is centred on creating
and supporting an innovative and vibrant workplace of distinction.

To create a true workplace of distinction, HRRH's leadership team encourages and empowers their personnel
to aspire to and achieve excellence within all facets of operations with a special emphasis on individual,
team and organizational accountability and positive performance recognition. One of the many ways HRRH
nurtures their performance initiative is by providing their staff with a sophisticated and easily accessible
learning environment.

HRRH has long since recognized that in addition to how critical learning and updating current medical and
technical skills are - the ongoing professional development of personal, supervisory and social patient
interaction skills are just as important to providing the highest level of patient care possible. Addressing all
of these educational needs is vital to the successful operation of any multidisciplinary healthcare facility
like HRRH.

Over the last two decades the genre of e-learning has gone through an interesting metamorphosis, culminating
in the realization that the true test of an effective e-learning program is evident by the both the learners
experience as well as the measurable results or learning outcomes achieved as a direct result of participating
in an educational program. When HRRH was searching for the right project partner they knew it had to be
an organization who not only possessed the best technical toolsets and skills with extensive healthcare
industry experience and expertise, but one that understood how to make the learning experience a rich and
rewarding one for their staff to ultimately enhance individual and operational productivity.

The choice to partner with Clarity.ca (Clarity) enabled HRRH to meet all of their e-learning program goals by
using Clarity’s industry knowledge and proprietary toolsets to create a unique, blended e-learning program.
Led by the Project Manager for HRRH, Mr. Mehdi Kasumov (Corporate Educator), this new educational
program took the very best of their existing traditional training components and seamlessly incorporated
new e-learning components to create a synergistic and dynamic learning structure designed to facilitate
superior job performance and organizational efficiency.

3
The Anatomy of a Blended E-Learning Program

Blended e-learning is a highly effective, flexible learning solution that incorporates

e-learning with conventional training delivery methods to create an exceptional
learning experience and results. This type of educational program is designed to
create a multi-faceted conduit between the people who possess critical knowledge
and expertise to the people who need it. In essence, a well-designed blended
e-learning program results in the development of a customized learning network
specifically tailored to meet the exacting requirements of an organization.

A typical blended e-learning program includes a variety of components such as virtual classes, real-time
learning, self-paced web-based training, instructor-led classroom training, face-to-face lectures and presentations
and video conferencing using a spectrum of delivery methods and formats. In order to develop an effective
and cost-efficient blended e-learning program, a key element to achieving success is choosing the right learning
management system (LMS). An LMS is software designed to deliver, track and manage the training process.

HRRH soon discovered that Clarity’s proprietary LMS program, the Learning Information Management
Environment (LiMe), far exceeded their expectations by providing a completely customized blended e-learning
infrastructure for creating, managing, tracking, delivering and assessing their organizational e-learning program
both online and in the classroom.

Nowhere is the need for ongoing skill

enhancement and learning development
more evident than in the ever-evolving
healthcare industry. In addition to keeping
abreast of the medical and technical
advances occurring today, the very real
need to provide personal care and support
to not only the patient - but the patient’s
family - has become a meaningful priority
to any healthcare organization that wishes
to facilitate the highest level of patient
recovery success possible. Dedicated to
being a learning organization, HRRH is
committed to make lifelong learning
available to their personnel by always
providing diverse learning and professional
development opportunities to ensure
all aspects of current organizational,
operational and patient care needs are met.

4
Vital Signs

The first step in any learning program development project is the front-end
analysis process. This process includes the in-depth identification of the critical
learning objectives and goals of every application of the educational program,
the analysis and inclusion of overall organizational and industry training requirements/
standards and operational procedures, as well as the definition of existing technical
system and workflow parameters. Once these program dynamics have been clearly
defined and detailed, the initial development phase of the process can begin.

When designing a comprehensive blended e-learning program, implementing a pilot project to illicit learner
feedback prior to the final design and program deployment stage has proven to be highly beneficial. A pilot
project enables a select group of learners to actually use the proposed program design and offer suggestions
geared toward further enhancing the intuitive interface of the course to make it as user-friendly as possible.
This process is an outstanding way of ‘monitoring the vital signs’ of the effectiveness of your proposed
learning program in a practical environment with measurable results.

Determined to maximize the potential of their new blended e-learning program, HRRH launched a two-week
pilot project comprised of 80 HRRH employees, designed with Clarity’s LiMe toolset, built on and supported
by Clarity's proprietary content management system (CCM.Net). This user group included a range of learners
from various divisions including management team members that could report on the course completion
activity of participating employees. All users were required to take the main ‘Privacy and Confidentiality’
course, with approximately half of the learners taking the ‘Restraining the use of Restraints’ course.

Each pilot program participant that

successfully finished the course
requirements received an official
Certificate of Completion and their
invaluable feedback helped tailor the
final user interface design to meet the
specific needs of HRRH’s staff. This pilot
program feedback was also instrumental
in the creation of specialized help videos
located on the learning homepage that
provide basic navigational and course
content guidance for the learners to help
them familiarize themselves with the
new program.

5
The DNA for Success

The DNA or blueprint for success with any significant project like deploying a blended
e-learning program is made much easier when working with an organization like
HRRH. HRRH’s interdisciplinary team of highly qualified and experienced professionals
made the process of analysis and data acquisition and transfer a seamless one.

Prior to the implementation of the new e-learning LiMe platform, HRRH was using a standard software
based training program to facilitate practical staff instruction relative to meeting regulatory and skills training/
upgrading management for healthcare professionals. Clarity created a customized export program to import all
of these existing courses directly into the LiMe system, eliminating the need re-enter any of their existing courses.

One inherent limitation of the previous software program was that it created a heavy workload for clinical
leaders because they were the only people that could update course completion records. Transferring all of
these skill development courses online to LiMe greatly streamlined the process enabling the learner to
complete the course requirements, be automatically graded and have the results recorded in the database.
Additionally, once a course is successfully completed, LiMe provides the learner with a Certificate of
Completion for their records.

LiMe’s versatility also enabled Clarity to import all historical credentials of the learners, thereby allowing
HRRH to use LiMe to easily search the archives and issue Certificates of Completion to learners for courses
completed in the past.

As part of their blended e-learning program renewal, HRRH had Clarity add an entirely new ‘tuition reimbursement’
program component to the site. This new program element allows learners to submit requests for funds from
HRRH for the purpose of pursuing career related educational endeavors. Clarity customized LiMe’s approval
workflow process to HRRH's specifications, resulting in the automatic process of moving tuition reimbursement
requests from the learner, to their manager, to the clinical practice leader and finally to the educational services
division. This feature also enables the educational services division the ability to track employee requests and
to monitor what stage of the approval process each request has reached at any given time.

To date, HRRH is now using LiMe to host over 100 online and classroom based courses with user satisfaction
reflected in the notable amount of positive feedback HRRH has received from their staff.

“ Working with Clarity on this project was a pleasure.

Clarity’s project management and technical teams
exceeded our expectations at every turn and made
the process of working together as easy and seamless
as their programs are to use.”
Mehdi Kasumov, Corporate Educator,
MBA (Finance & Credit), BEcons (Hons), BBA (Hons)
BSc.(Applied Mathematics & Computer Science)

6
A Knowledge Transfusion
The face of modern healthcare enterprise continues to change proportionally to meet the evolving needs
of its communities and patients. Identifying, creating and implementing effective technical solutions with
traditional methodologies has proven to provide the healthcare community with the tools it needs to
increase organizational and operational efficiency and most importantly - to improve patient care services.

No one knows this better than HRRH, who has always demonstrated an unwavering commitment to their
patients and the communities they serve. Spearheading this critical project as the Project Manager for HRRH,
Mr. Mehdi Kasumov (Corporate Educator) ensured that all aspects of this ambitious project were accurately
identified and met within the predetermined performance, technical and financial parameters established by
HRRH. Acting as Mr. Mehdi’s Project Lead, Ms. Deborah Dennie (Director, Education Services) was instrumen-
tal in defining and clearly communicating the expectations of senior management and The Board of
Directors to ensure final presentation, content and budgeting needs were achieved.

Mr. James Moolecherry (Manager, IT/IS Department) led his team of technical experts to a highly successful
implementation of the new system and blended e-learning program, with D’Arcy Larson (Director of
Professional Practice) working tirelessly with the Clinical Practice Leaders to gather critical course content and
to make certain the new training program met all of their learning objectives. Last but not least, the HRRH
Board of Directors, led by Rueben Devlin (President) was the backbone of making this project a reality for the
organization with special thanks to Ms. Margaret Czaus (Chief Nursing Office, Professional Practice) for her
ongoing efforts to facilitate the evolving needs of this project.

Since the e-learning program’s implementation, Mr. Kasumov has received extremely positive feedback from
the users citing ease of use, appreciation of program flexibility (to use both internally and for external
learning courses), enjoyment of the overall presentation and an enthusiastic approval of the training material
itself. As Project Manager, Mr. Kasumov has expressed complete satisfaction with the exceptional lines of
communication between HRRH and
Clarity and Clarity’s ongoing dedication
to ensuring that all facets of this new
program were met as well as their
ongoing commitment to providing
the unique customization features that
HRRH is currently implementing.

7
Conclusion

For over 60 years, Humber River Regional Hospital has been providing harmonized
healthcare services with the underlying objective to become “The hospital of
choice. . . committed to patient and family needs”. All facets of HRRH move from
a shared 4-Dimensional definition of what quality healthcare services are that
include: Responsiveness, System Competency, Client/Community Focus and Worklife.
At HRRH, success is only found by delivering the highest possible quality of care to
their patients by partnering with patients and their families through the entire
healthcare experience.

One of the many ways HRRH leadership team demonstrates their commitment to their patients is by
ensuring that every member of their staff is presented with the opportunity to grow and evolve in their
healthcare professions through ongoing educational programs offered by the facility. Partnering with Clarity
to develop a new, more versatile and comprehensive blended e-learning program is just one example of
HRRH’s proactive approach to showing their staff how valuable and appreciated each one of them is in
meeting the needs of their patients.

Whether it’s providing expert consulting, application development, application integration, creative design,
employee training and/or intranet development services - our impressive team of experienced multi-disci-
plined professionals enables us to ensure that our clients are presented with only the most effective and cost
efficient solutions available to support and achieve their unique organizational and customer service goals.

To explore what innovative solutions Clarity can provide your organization with or to request more
information, please call: (403) 705-5900 or select request form. To learn more about Humber River
Regional Hospital, please select www.hrrh.on.ca

Please contact us for more

information or to set up
an online demonstration:
“ Thanks to the vision and drive of Clarity’s
management team, HRRH is exactly where
we want to be at this stage of development.
Rob Sykes HRRH is also proud to be working with a
403.705.5903 Canadian company that not only delivers on
rob.sykes@clarity.ca promised product quality - but truly excels at
teamwork and customer service.”
Susan Williams
Mehdi Kasumov, Corporate Educator,
416.483.6168 MBA (Finance & Credit), BEcons (Hons), BBA (Hons)
swilliams@clarity.ca BSc.(Applied Mathematics & Computer Science)