The United States has some of the best healthcare providers in the world. Yet even with highly trained physicians, Americans suffer from worse health outcomes than many other comparable countries, despite spending more on care than any other nation. According to the Commonwealth Fund, American life expectancy is at 78.6 years, over two years lower than the average among peer nations.
As a result, improving healthcare outcomes has become the guiding force behind almost every effort to reform healthcare. Many of these efforts seem to be directed at physicians and nurses, who have direct contact with patients and seemingly have the greatest impact on a patient’s health outcomes.
However, other healthcare employees that have limited or no direct contact with patients also play a significant role in patient outcomes. From health aides, who provide essential health care services such as administering medications and taking vital measurements, to non-medical employees like cooks and janitorial staff, every team member plays a role in improving overall patient outcomes.
Skills tests are an often-overlooked tool for improving patient outcomes. From hiring the right person to empowering professional development, administering skills tests to applicants and current employees can help you to make the best staffing choices. From basic computer skills tests to medical coding skills tests, there are assessment tools available to meet the needs of any healthcare provider.
Pre-Employment Assessment and Healthcare Support Roles
Healthcare providers face several challenges when it comes to recruiting support staff, and they must avoid hiring mistakes. Many providers report that turnover can be quite high, with bad Job Fit ranking as one of the most common reasons for high attrition.
Part of the problem for poor Job Fit is a mismatch between the position and the employee’s skill level. Take medical billing, for instance. According to the Kaiser Health Network, the error rate in medical billing can run as high as 75% to 80%. This suggests there is a significant skills gap when it comes to medical billing skills.
The eSkill Talent Assessment PlatformTM makes identifying those gaps easier than ever. You can administer pre-employment assessment tests based on a job or a specific skill. For instance, if you want to hire a support staff member to handle front office duties, you could have them take a medical terminology skills test to assess their familiarity with the language they will encounter on the job.
While these tests can quickly eliminate applicants who lack the basic skills for the job, you can also look more closely at the results to see which questions candidates answered correctly You may find that the candidate got more difficult questions right or that there were a few terms that they did not know that they could easily learn with minimal training.
While a basic computer skills test is a good idea for almost every potential employee, there are other tests available for roles that require specialized skills. For example, you would likely opt to have candidates that were interested in a billing position take the medical coding and the medical billing skills tests to get a baseline measurement of each candidate’s abilities in those areas.
How Medical Billing and Medical Terminology Skills Tests Can Drive Professional Development
Even after you hire employees, skills tests provide value for healthcare providers. Each skills test provides insight into an employee’s skills and knowledge and allows you to identify any areas in which they might be deficient. While these results may not be enough to dissuade you from hiring them, you can create a customized training plan to rectify any gaps.
You can also use skills test results to help you guide professional development throughout an employee’s time with your organization. By using the results of pre-employment assessments, you can create a customized employee development plan. This will allow you to cover any deficiencies and to help the employee work on developing complex higher-level skills.
You can choose from over 800 pre-prepared skills tests in the eSkill Test Library or create your own customized skills tests using the eSkill Author. Combine questions from one or more tests and add your own content, including video questions. This flexibility allows you to create skills tests that specifically target skills that are essential for each job role. As employees complete training, you can continue to administer assessments to measure its effectiveness.
Skills testing helps you improve recruiting outcomes by helping you hire the best possible candidates. They also aid in training efforts by enabling you to help employees gain experience and meet company and personal goals year after year. Both will have a major impact on improving health outcomes at your organization.
Request a demo to learn how the eSkills Talent Assessment PlatformTM can help you meet hiring and training goals and create better healthcare outcomes for patients.