By JULIE MINDA
During a fluke encounter in Europe several years ago, education consultant Andrew Malley got to talking with a group of Dignity Health executives about the pervasive challenges health care organizations face when trying to find well-educated, well-trained recruits for all types of positions. The group lamented that because there is such inconsistency in the quality and type of training available for many health care roles, it can be a challenge to find applicants who are prepared to take on these jobs.
The group agreed there are people who want to do really important work in health care, and they deserve a quality education, Malley recalls of the conversation. The executives and Malley wondered whether Dignity Health could use the expertise of its tens of thousands of staff to create a better health care education product.
A caregiver transports a patient at a Dignity Health facility.
That conversation was the genesis of the Dignity Health Global Education online education company, a joint venture of Dignity Health and Global University Systems of Amsterdam and minority partners. Global University Systems is a family-owned business with both for-profit and not-for-profit subsidiaries.
Launched in February, Dignity Health Global Education is offering online academic degrees and certifications as well as professional, executive and leadership training for health care workers worldwide. The new business has both for-profit and not-for-profit aspects. In July the company began its first class, which is part of a nurse leadership certificate program offered in conjunction with Duke University Corporate Education Division.
Malley, who is Dignity Health Global Education's chief executive, says, "It's about health care taking ownership of the education issue, and making an impact.
Malley
"Our main focus is to up-skill and improve education outcomes for workers," he says. "And when they have the most up-to-date education and resources, it's better for patients."
Buildup
Dignity Health and Global University Systems spent two years setting up the structure for the company, establishing partnerships with well-known universities and other educational institutions and developing coursework.
Gregg Davis is senior vice president for international business and strategy for Chicago-based CommonSpirit Health, which is Dignity Health's parent. He says Global University Systems initially supplied expertise in developing online educational platforms — it works with higher education institutions worldwide to provide both in-person and online education. And, Dignity Health has been enabling access to clinical and nonclinical leaders from throughout its system to consult on what education and training is needed and assist with creating course content.
Davis
The 41-hospital Dignity Health has 60,000 staff and 10,000 employed or affiliated physicians. Its parent CommonSpirit has about 159,000 employees and 25,000 physicians and advanced practice clinicians at its 142 hospitals and 700-plus other care sites in 21 states. Davis says CommonSpirit will become increasingly involved in the online education company, including by enabling its clinical and nonclinical staff to contribute to course content.
Both Dignity Health and Global University Systems are providing funding for Dignity Health Global Education's development.
Content development
Kurt Hayes is chief learning experience officer for Dignity Health Global Education. He says the company's goal is to offer content that is practical for today's health care workforce, and to equip those staffers with the skills and knowledge that their employers need them to have in order to best serve patients.
Hayes says to achieve this, Dignity Health Global Education develops its offerings and coursework collaboratively.
Hayes
First its executives, plus the faculty and administrators of the partnering school as well as CommonSpirit leadership brainstorm the outcomes they want to achieve and the type of educational programming they'd need to generate those outcomes.
Next, Dignity Health Global Education interviews a broad swath of in-hospital leaders, managers and frontline staff on program content. Dignity Health Global Education develops an outline of course activity, gets sign-off from the original group that proposed the programming and then sets out to create the coursework.
Hayes says Dignity Health Global Education curriculum developers work closely with the education partner's faculty and with CommonSpirit's frontline clinicians and other staff to create the course content. This way, the most up-to-date information as well as practical application information is included.
For credit-bearing courses, faculty normally will deliver the tailored content through online live courses. For non-credit-bearing courses, content will be produced in Dignity Health Global Education's multimedia studios, where course developers will create interactive, easily digestible segments of instruction that students will be able to consume at their own pace.
Most coursework will involve cohorts of students who pace their studies as a group and interact with faculty and classmates through online private chat rooms and other electronic communications. In some cases, online courses and seminars will be supplemented by hands-on clinical trainings at CommonSpirit facilities. Projects and tests all will be geared toward what will be usable in students' day-to-day work.
Anyone at CommonSpirit can apply for the courses. Dignity Health Global Education also hopes to attract students from around the U.S. and the world.
The coursework will be co-branded by, and tailored for, Dignity Health Global Education and the partner school. Dignity Health Global Education will receive a portion of its students' tuition payments, and the partner school will receive a portion. Dignity Health Global Education will either reinvest those funds in content development or distribute the funds to the joint venture founders.
Relevancy
Malley says the vision is to stay ahead of what health care organizations need in terms of workforce development — by combining the applied working knowledge of CommonSpirit and Dignity Health with the educational underpinnings of the schools involved in the partnership. The hope is to respond quickly in developing new coursework to stay abreast of evolving challenges facing health care.
Davis says CommonSpirit hopes to use the Dignity Health Global Education platform to train people so they can be "better leaders and better managers and so they are better able to manage patient care — to provide better care."
"This way, health care professionals will be better prepared to address issues, in a way that is in line with our mission," he says.
Partnerships span nation, cross ocean
Dignity Health Global Education plans to form partnerships with a dozen educational institutions by the end of the year.
So far, in addition to a nurse leadership program with Duke University's Duke Corporate Education unit, it has partnered on an "RN-to-BSN" program with Webster University for nurses pursuing a Bachelor of Science in nursing; a certificate in health care marketing and a certificate in healthcare analytics from Pepperdine University's Graziadio Business School; a certificate in health care innovation and a master's in global management, both from Arizona State University's Thunderbird School of Global Management; and a certificate in health care project management from American University.
The Pepperdine, Webster and one ASU program are enrolling for fall. The American University and other ASU course will begin in January.
Dignity Health Global Education also has formed a partnership with the United Kingdom's University of Exeter around nutrition, recovery and rehab coursework. The online education company is finalizing a partnership with Chicago's DePaul University to provide degrees and stand-alone courses in information technology, cybersecurity, analytics, health law and nursing. And, Dignity Health Global Education has a relationship with the Goodwall career development network to offer those services to students.
In time, Dignity Health Global Education plans to offer coursework in health care finance, data science, ethics, informatics, administration, leadership, innovation, management, law, logistics and supply chain, quality improvement and other areas.
— JULIE MINDA
Dignity Health International consultants guide providers worldwide in developing, improving services
Dignity Health Global Education is part of Dignity Health International. San Francisco-based Dignity Health established the latter consultancy, education and training company about three years ago to provide health care organizations domestically and internationally with access to the expertise of Dignity Health specialists in a range of health care administrative and clinical areas.
When Dignity Health and Catholic Health Initiatives merged early this year to form the nonprofit CommonSpirit Health, Dignity Health International became a nonprofit subsidiary of that new organization. Dignity Health International consulting expertise includes hospital real estate, design and development; integrated network development; supply chain management and compliance. It provides clinical expertise and staff training in cardiovascular, orthopedic, neuroscience, cancer care and other specialty areas.
Through Dignity Health International, Dignity Health staff and clinicians:
- Consult with clients on establishment and management of hospitals, ambulatory facilities and clinical offerings.
- Provide staff training in clinical specialties.
- Provide telehealth services to clients' patients, including for second opinions, rehabilitation, chronic disease management and specialty care.
- Collaborate with clients to innovate and to engage in research and development of health care products and protocols.
- Offer leadership development training.
Dignity Health experts travel to the client to provide the services, and clients can come to Dignity Health facilities for hands-on learning and/or access the experts online.
Usually, Dignity Health International builds its teams of consultants, educators and trainers on a project by project basis, drawing expertise from staff at Dignity Health hospitals and health care facilities. These individuals transition back into their usual jobs upon completion of the contract work.
Gregg Davis, senior vice president for international business and strategy for Chicago-based CommonSpirit Health, says Dignity Health International evolved from a consulting relationship Dignity Health had with Beijing Oriental Electronics Technology, a technology company in Beijing, China, which was expanding into the hospital and health services sector. BOE had asked Dignity Health to help it develop a Western-style hospital in China. Dignity Health consultants played a role in the development of BOE Hefei Digital Hospital in Hefei, Anhui Province. Dignity Health staff also helped to train and educate the incoming health care providers of the hospital.
The success of that project convinced Dignity Health leaders of the value of sharing best practices with health care providers via a consulting or training relationship. Since its 2016 establishment, Dignity Health International has provided services to other companies in China, Vietnam, the Middle East and Europe that own and operate hospital and health care facilities.
Dignity Health International plans to grow the business with new clients and will tap into experts at Catholic Health Initiatives facilities in the CommonSpirit system.
— JULIE MINDA