URAC expands its online courses for health care professionals

In today's rapidly changing health care industry, it can be difficult for professionals to keep up-to-date with important changes in the standards of accreditation. Training becomes even more challenging when budgets and resources are stretched thin. URAC, the nation's leading health care accreditation and education organization, has expanded its online courses to help health care professionals receive the training they need. The flexible courses cover a wide range of health care topics and are available in a variety of formats, including webinars and eLearning modules.

"By adhering to high quality standards and always looking for ways to improve, health care organizations show their commitment to consumers and the dedication to their profession," said President and CEO Alan P. Spielman. "URAC's eLearning programs and webinars allow managers to provide employees with effective educational tools, without going over budget or sacrificing valuable time to travel to and from a training course."

URAC's eLearning modules offer a self-paced approach to learning about accreditation standards. The 24/7 accessibility for the eLearning sessions makes scheduling easy and allows a greater number of people to attend the classes, and organizations to have access to the content for 30 days.

Both the webinars and eLearning courses are also designed to meet the training requirements that are part of URAC's Core Standards of staff training requirements. In addition to the valuable information that employees learn, the organizations also move closer to accreditation.

With such high demand, URAC has already expanded the curriculum to include nine eLearning courses, including Disease Management v.3.0, Scoring Methodology, Core v.3.0, Understanding the Quality Improvement Projects Process, Health Utilization Management v.6.0, Health Call Center v.5.0, Workers' Compensation Utilization Management v.5.0, Health Plan v.6.0, and Health Network v.6.0.

Specialty topics such as Interoperability and Business Continuity, Health Literacy, Mastering the Quality Improvement Projects (QIP) Process, Claims and Fraud Abuse, and Performance Measurement and Reporting are available as webinars. URAC can also create custom webinars for organizations with specific needs.

"Since launching our online training options this past spring, we have already seen a remarkable growth in their popularity. We plan to expand the courses as the industry's standards evolve," said Mr. Spielman. "At a time when the entire country is focused on health care quality and improving health care efficiency and effectiveness without raising costs, our eLearning products and webinars are a great solution for health care organizations."

The eLearning modules and webinars have an extensive development and review process, led by Accreditation Reviewers with first-hand knowledge of and experience with accreditation standards. Both the webinars and eLearning programs are approved for Registered Nurse and Case Management Continuing Education hours, providing yet another benefit for organizations and another way to leverage tight budgets.

To explore how URAC can help with education needs or to sign up for eLearning opportunities, contact URAC by phone at 202-216-9010, by email at [email protected], or online at www.urac.org/accreditationEducation/. Information on all of URAC's current training opportunities is also available at the URAC Learning Center.