THE CHALLENGE
Before Hopkins Policies Online (HPO) was implemented, employees of each entity accessed inconsistent policies, version tracking of policies was disparate, and many policies only existed in paper form. The signature process for policy approval required an extra secretary and weeks of shepherding documents from one desk to another. The Department of Nursing needed a tool that fit in seamlessly with their existing workflows while the Center for Information Services needed a tool that was accessible by the entire institution. For a software platform solution to be adopted at such a large scale, an automated policy review tool was required across the system. The Technology Innovation Center development team was challenged to build a tool that met the unique policy management needs of Johns Hopkins – at scale.
THE OUTCOME
Upon logging in with their Johns Hopkins credentials, Hopkins Policies Online users are brought to a home page with policies unique to their entity. Employees have the ability to search and filter the repository by manual, document type, or category to find easily downloadable files. Policies and procedures can be favorited, which subscribes the user to receive automated emails each time a document is updated. A document review feature within HPO allows policies to be assigned to employees for acknowledgement and compliance tracking. Implementing or updating a policy, a coordination process that once took a month, now takes minutes using e-signatures. Today, HPO is available to employees across Johns Hopkins Health System as well as Johns Hopkins University.
