Interested in Embryologist Training and KPI management? Book a one on one meeting with ART Compass today! Missed our Digital Staff Management and Novel KPI Webinar? Catch the replay, anytime, on demand!!
“One thing worse than training employees and losing them… is not training them and keeping them.” -Ed Metcalf
IVF labs have been affected by unprecedented workforce shortages, and are at the forefront of a great wave of pending retirements. Less skilled and experienced staff means there is more room for grave errors to occur, and less people than ever to lead the training of new staff. Until each staff member has documented training, followed by successful assessment of competency of that task, they should not be permitted to perform or result patient testing independently of their trainer. Embryologist training, competency acquisition and documentation of these activities for inspections hasn’t advanced in 40 years, until now. ART Compass is outsmarting the workforce shortage, reducing non-conformance events, and helping you pass quality inspections, defeating CAPs number one most cited deficiency, staff related checklist items.
Whether you’re subject to CLIA, CAP or your local state DOH requirements, you will be required to provide proof (documentation) of both training AND competency for each employee, for each task that they perform. Documentation of all of these tasks can be organized through the use of advanced digital IVF lab management tools, like ART Compass. ART Compass helps savvy IVF lab directors keep track of what each staff members’ specific job functions include, which ones they will need to be trained on, and which tasks have been completed by each trainer. Competency assessment is an ongoing, continuous process of monitoring individuals’ abilities to perform their specific job functions.
When Embryologist Training is Complete- Maintain Competencies and KPIs
Once training has been completed and documented in ART Compass, you will assess each staff member’s ability to successfully perform these tasks using our robust suite of subjective “surveys”. This is competency, where you will assess if the training was successful and if staff can perform each assigned task correctly. ART Compass contains competency assessments for every embryology procedure. To fully demonstrate successful competency all 6 of the CAP Checklist items must be documented for each employee, for each task.
Our webinar will detail the ART Compass platform to standardize competency assessment, ART lab training, and reduce new staff on-boarding time and much more, including discussion of the KPIs or the future – in a fully digital embryology lab!
How can ART Compass Help?
ART Compass is a mobile application for the assisted reproductive technology (ART) industry that puts physicians, administrators, and lab staff on the “same page” as their patients. It is a LIMS , a patient portal, and a laboratory quality management system. It documents IVF staff clinical decision-making, streamlines reporting, and automates data analysis.
Apple App Store:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/art-compass/id1442048939?mt=8
Google Play Store:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.artproficiencyapp
We achieve this unprecedented level of information management, starting in the heart of any clinical practice: the IVF (in vitro fertilization) laboratory. The IVF laboratory is responsible for creating the patient’s embryos, reporting their quality, status, and genetic results to both patients and physicians.
ART Compass takes the pain out of managing dozens of parameters for automated regulatory reporting, simplifying the quality control workflow for labs, saving time and money, all while simultaneously improving patient care by providing direct and timely access to hundreds of data points pertaining to each patient’s IVF cycle.
Physicians go on to use this information to make clinical care decisions, such as which embryo to transfer. Administrators use this information to track pregnancy and success rates for their clinic. Patients have a secure and HIPAA compliant portal to view their frozen embryo inventory, and IVF cycle information, and direct access to physicians and laboratory staff.
www.artcompass.io
While you are here… check out the entire ARTC digital Playbook…
| September | FDA Audit |
| October | Staff Audit |
| November | Patient Satisfaction and Security |
| December | Space and Supplies |
| January | PMs, Air Quality, and Deep Clean |
| February | Biennial P&P Updates, Review, and Sign Off |
| March | |
| April | |
| May | |
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| August |
Our Message on IVF.net About the Digitalization of Quality Control
We’ve got great news! A post by our CEO Dr. Carol Curchoe was featured on IVF.net! She explains EVERYTHING about how ART Compass has changed the realm of cloud-based quality assurance (QA) and quality control (QC) for good and how cloud-based laboratory quality management systems are crucial for the development of IVF! A lot of the processes and data that are required to be recorded in IVF quality control are done on paper. Maybe it’s time to digitize a lot of what we do, and to save time and sanity of embryologists.
Image by Matthew Henry
Embryology Competency Assessments for IVF Quality Assurance
Dr. Curchoe delves into how staff competency assessments are available for staff to review their knowledge of embryology on a regular basis. This is important because even with a new and improved digitized path It’s always important to make sure that staff have complete knowledge on how to maintain quality control and quality assurance in the IVF lab. They should be able to tell if everything is up to standard and is in good shape for the lab to be a great home for your embryos!
“ART Compass is a new paradigm— digitizing staff related competency assessments, training documentation, annual procedure evaluations, and real time “in-cycle” embryologist KPI statistics— for 21st century IVF lab QC/QA in “the cloud”.” -Dr. Curchoe
ART Compass and quality control digitalization
So what exactly can ART Compass do digitally? Well our mobile application and the web-based portal technology allows for quick data collection, real-time analysis, management, and distribution of multimedia files, automated reporting and the ability to use device hardware features, such as; the phone’s camera image editing with a finger and a biometric fingerprint data to enhance security!
Endless possibilities
Now it is time to start thinking about the big picture! What is it that can be implemented alongside ART Compass or any other mobile application out there for maximization of quality of patients’ IVF cycles? Electronic witnessing systems using RFID tags, QR codes, barcodes or other image capture approaches, if implemented alongside ART Compass for complete accuracy, can help eliminate the need to record who has done what in the lab by hand. All these data that are collected can then be tied in with the outcome data of that lab.
This way, you can identify what is improving the results of your lab and what is leading in undesirable outcomes. Another realm of possibility is IoT (Internet of Things) sensors. These can be used for real-time monitoring of room temperature humidity volatile organic compounds, and door open count among others and if this is paired with the clinical outcome data collected by ART Compass, you are able to see how these parameters affect the outcomes.
There’s a lot more that Dr. Curchoe explores in terms of the possibilities when it comes to integrating digitized means of data collection and QC and QA. However we do want to share with you a little more about IVF.net!
What is IVF.net?
Good question! IVF.net is basically an embryologist’s paradise or perhaps even for anyone involved in IVF. You can find everything you need in one spot. You can find out about the latest IVF-related news and announcements to stay up-to-date about new developments! Or you can search for new job positions for careers in the IVF world. If you are thinking of placing a new piece of equipment in your lab or clinic, you can find all of the product reviews on their website in one spot.
You have to make sure you have the best of the best machinery equipped in your lab! If you are looking for some new textbook material or resources in general for scientists on IVF, infertility and reproduction, you’ve got it all on IVF.net. IVF.net can also help you find and discover education and embryology course opportunities to help build that resume of yours and start your journey towards a career in reproductive medicine!
Our final thoughts
So whether you’re looking to find a new job in reproductive medicine and IVF or if you’re trying to develop that resume of yours and take a part-time or full-time course in embryology, stop by IVF.net. As per our CEO’s, post on the website let us know what you think about the digitalization of IVF and these new methods that might possibly change the field of IVF and reproductive medicine for good.
IVF is something that requires the utmost precision and accuracy and that is allowed or enabled when there is the highest degree of quality control and quality assurance in the lab. Any of the tiniest mistakes could possibly lead to an unsuccessful pregnancy or undesirable outcome. And that is simply not acceptable when someone’s embryos are in our hands. The times of scattered paper records and confusing data entry systems is long gone. Now it is the time to revolutionize IVF and to make sure that instead of having embryologists pour their energy into QC and QA, risking burnout (something a mobile app could take care of) they can spend more time taking care of your embryos!