The Toledo Clinic Improves Policy & Incident Management with Compliance Software

About this Case Study

Bringing both EthicsPoint and PolicyTech into The Toledo Clinic offered the organization some of the foundational elements needed to build an effective and adaptive compliance program.

1. Industry:

   Healthcare

2. Number of employees:

   1,400

3. Before:

   Organization needed better tools for managing policies and employee reports.

4. After:

   NAVEX software offers effective platform for managing compliance program.

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Challenge: Moving Away from SharePoint

When Drew Williamsen joined The Toledo Clinic as the Corporate Compliance Officer, he recognized an opportunity to make improvements in the compliance program right off the bat.

Prior to him joining the organization, the decision had been made to use SharePoint to manage policies and procedures. Williamsen worked for a previous organization that had made the same decision with less than effective results. “I spent two years working with IT to have them beef up SharePoint to where it could be a policy management system, and in two years it never got there.” Wanting to steer The Toledo Clinic away from the same issues, Williamsen decided to push for a better policy management solution.

At the same time, Williamsen looked to fill other compliance gaps. The organization did not have a true hotline. Everything was done via spreadsheets and disparate documents, making it difficult to track reports and visualize trends.

Solution: EthicsPoint® Hotline and Incident Management & PolicyTech® Policy and Procedure Management

The Toledo Clinic ultimately decided to bring EthicsPoint and PolicyTech on board. EthicsPoint hotline and incident management software allows the organization to better track and manage employee and patient reports. Controls within the software also provide the organization the flexibility needed to separate HR and compliance reports and put those reports through different workflows.

On the policy and procedure management side, PolicyTech makes it easy for employees and system administrators to access policies in a centralized location. PolicyTech also keeps track of employee attestations and provides an easy way for Williamsen and his team to automate policy workflows and run reports. “[PolicyTech] makes the visibility into who’s done what or who hasn’t done what much easier. We know exactly where we need to follow up in the blink of an eye,” said Williamsen.

Results: Compliance Software Leads to Data Governance Improvements

Bringing both EthicsPoint and PolicyTech into The Toledo Clinic offered the organization some of the foundational elements needed to build an effective and adaptive compliance program. In particular, PolicyTech helped the organization make some changes to how it was managing data. The IT department had been looking for a reason to make marked improvements to the organization’s Active Directory, and implementing PolicyTech provided the push needed to do so. “It forced the question on the organization about data, data governance and how we look at some of these larger issues to make sure that we have accurate information for record retention,” explained Williamsen.

Having both software pieces come from NAVEX offers benefits as well. Because both EthicsPoint and PolicyTech share the same look and feel, it was easier for Williamsen and his team to learn the nuances of the NAVEX platform. “It makes a better feel and better continuity within the department and the organization,” he added.

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About The Toledo Clinic

The Toledo Clinic is a large private multi-specialty physician group in the city of Toledo. The Clinic also has radiology services (x-ray, ultrasound, MRI, CT and other scans), laboratory services, and a pharmacy on the main campus at Secor Rd and Sylvania Ave. The physicians represent essentially all specialties and the breadth of primary care. The main campus facility also includes a newly designed outpatient surgery center serving all surgical specialists at the Clinic.