Automated evaluation delivery is an evaluation delivery method that allows programs to define delivery criteria for larger groups within a program. Evaluation rules can be set up at the beginning to deliver evaluations to residents and/or faculty at specified times throughout the year with no additional maintenance. This evaluation delivery function integrates with a variety of other MedHub features to further streamline your program management processes.
MedHub makes the evaluation delivery and completion process even easier to manage with some additional features:
- MedHub’s faculty and resident scheduling features help to facilitate a simplified delivery of automated evaluations.
- Faculty can begin completing a form, then save progress to complete the form later.
- For specific requests or requirements, evaluations can be manually assigned to specific residents or faculty members.
- The ability to set expiration dates so that evaluations cannot be complete beyond a specific date.
- The MedHub mobile app provides faculty and residents the opportunity for quick completion of evaluations, including the talk-to-text feature for narrative feedback.
SETTING UP AN AUTOMATED EVALUATION
Take the following steps to create an automated evaluation:
1 – Schedule trainees and faculty. In order for automated evaluations to be delivered, trainees have to be scheduled, faculty have to be scheduled, and they both need to be scheduled together for a minimum number of days. (This is a customizable program setting.) For some rotations, utilizing service groups can further simplify the scheduling process.
2 – Create a folder to house the rules. Some programs will create a folder for each rotation, while others create folders specific to evaluators. For example, all faculty of resident evaluations can be grouped together. It helps to think logically about what works best for each individual program. Each folder can contain multiple rules.
3 – Set the delivery field. Delivery fields can be determined by rotation period, by dates of activity, and on specific dates.
- By rotation period. Evaluations can be set to the resident’s rotation period and can be customized to occur within that specified time period.
- By dates of activity. If a resident is assigned to the same service over multiple blocks, you can deliver one evaluation for their whole time of service (over multiple blocks). Or, if they are only scheduled for a portion of the rotation block, the evaluation can go out at that time rather than waiting for the block period to end. These evaluations can also be delivered for clinics as long as the clinics are set up by rotation date.
- On specific dates. This field can be used for self evaluations, evaluations of the program, and program director evaluations.
4 – Give the automated evaluation a title. Now you can begin adding rules to your folder. The title will appear in the query report and in the evaluation delivery history. While a title is not important for delivery, it can help you to stay organized.
5 – Select the evaluation form. Rules can be defined many ways, and the evaluation form is one of them. For example, if you have PGY specific evaluation forms, you can create multiple rules to accommodate the various forms.
6 – Select the schedule options. Programs can decide whether they are using the faculty and resident schedule to deliver evaluations, or if they are using service groups.
7 – Select the PGY levels and program. Indicate which level of residents you would like included in the delivery. In addition, select the program of the residents you’d like to evaluate in this rule. You can also include a note to an evaluator which will appear in the upper left corner of the evaluation form.
8 – Select any special options. Some special options include requiring an electronic signature for submission and issuing evaluations to be completed anonymously.
9 – Change the evaluation to active. Once you have all of your rules set up, the folder housing the rules must be changed from inactive to active to be delivered. Changes can be made to active and inactive automated evaluations at any point throughout the year. However, automated evaluations are delivered shortly before midnight eastern standard time. So, changes must be made by midnight the day before evaluations are scheduled to be delivered.
10 – Simulate a delivery rule. This function is crucial to testing your work. If when running a simulation you do not receive any results, you can begin to troubleshoot your delivery rule to avoid issues with future delivery.
TROUBLESHOOTING DELIVERY ISSUES
Are you looking to troubleshoot delivery issues? Here are some quick tips:
View the delivery history within an automation to double check on evaluations that should have been delivered. Here you can identify if an evaluation was not delivered.
If a simulation does not return any results (or if a form was supposed to send and did not), a few of these common solutions may quickly solve your issue.
- Check the “evaluations/automated evaluations modified” section in the audit trail query report to identify if something has been changed on a form. This will show the date and time automated evaluations were modified or if the status was changed and who made the change. This can help with diagnosing issues.
- Check to see if something was changed within other MedHub functions. (For example, perhaps the schedule wasn’t entered in time, or there was a change made to the delivery rule.)
- Make sure delivery rules are set to include the correct level of resident.
- Make sure faculty members have been scheduled and assigned to services prior to issuing resident evaluations of faculty members.
If you still are unable to diagnose an issue with a simulation or delivery, you can submit a support ticket via MedHub’s help tab, and we will be happy to help you quickly resolve the issue. When submitting a ticket, it is helpful to include as many details as possible to more quickly and efficiently resolve an issue.
For more information about how MedHub can simplify your evaluation delivery process, schedule time to talk with a MedHub expert.