Tuesday, September 16, 2014

A Big Course from a Small Association - MARK ATHITAKIS, Associations Now

One executive at a state association has taken the lead on educating healthcare workers on a pressing national issue via a MOOC. How do you get more attention for your association? Maybe it’s a membership drive. Maybe it’s a meeting or an ad campaign. For Jan Grimes, it’s meant building a lot of partnerships and putting together a must-attend online course. The MOOC that Grimes has put together covers hospital readmissions—an urgent topic now that the Affordable Care Act penalizes hospitals that readmit patients within 30 days of a discharge. “In my world, we depend on referrals from hospitals at the discharge process,” Grimes says. “I saw that as an incentive [for hospitals] to learn more about the homecare world and how better collaboration with us there and a better understanding of us can help keep patients out of the hospital and further the hospital association’s goals.” http://associationsnow.com/2014/09/a-big-course-from-a-small-association/