6/18/2019

Care Manager Efficiency, Part 3: Training Your Team

Christy Calhoun, MPH, Chief Content Officer

In this three-part series, senior vice president of consumer health experience Christy Calhoun shares ways care managers can use health education to involve members in their care, work more productively, and lower costs of care.

In Part 1, I talked about the benefits of curating and organizing content. Part 2 addressed ways to leverage your data and make it work for you. Now we’ll tie all the pieces together by exploring how additional training techniques can help your organization increase care manager efficiency.

You’ve already trained your care managers on the basics of using your education solution, of course, but your organization can further improve employee engagement by using analytics and eliciting success factors. Here are three ways to identify additional training opportunities.

Designate an expert

Designate one person (or perhaps several) to understand education utilization metrics and become an expert in interpreting this data. Which health education is performing well? What type of material is opened by members the most? Which items have high completion rates? Assigning someone to own this information enables your team to better understand performance data and make efficient decisions.

Incentivize your team

Give your care managers incentives to utilize your solution more often and increase member engagement. Explore ways to motivate care managers, such as gift cards, bonus time off, monthly lunches, and awards. Even though your coaches already use health education because they genuinely want to help your members, a little individual recognition can go a long way.

Identify your “super users”

“Super users” are the care managers who use your education solution most often and most effectively. You can leverage these coaches to spread the word about how they use health education. Dig deeper into which content they use most frequently and explore why. Do they like step-by-step instructions for testing blood sugar? Is the guide to meal planning especially effective? Find out which health education pieces are the “go-tos” for these care managers and why. Organize forums where coaches can share this information with each other and exchange tips.

Taking a closer look at how your team interacts with health education will also uncover who your low utilizers are. This is the perfect opportunity to find out what’s holding them back. Are they unconvinced of the solution’s benefits? Do they want to use it more but feel intimidated by a process they don’t understand well? Have them shadow a super user who can act as a mentor.

When care managers receive the training they need, a trickle-down effect begins.

1. They’re more likely to use your care collection.
2. They’ll understand the process better once they use it regularly.
3. They become more satisfied with their experience and more likely to encourage buy-in across the rest of your team.
4. Your organization controls costs, and your members get the education they deserve.

Increasing the efficiency of your care management team is a win-win for your organization and your members. When you empower your coaches to use their time in a way that’s both smart and effective, you reduce spending while also helping members live healthier lives. Optimizing your process takes time and work, but your efforts will pay big dividends in the long run.