Williamson County EMS

When Dan Cohen started his new position as captain of clinical practices at Williamson County EMS, the platform his department used for continuing education underwent major changes.

“It was completely unreliable,” Capt. Cohen remembers. Troubleshooting technical issues took up much of his time—time that would have been better spent training personnel. “I was essentially thrust into this position of having to provide distributive education with a tool that didn’t work,” he says.

Capt. Cohen quickly began searching for a better solution.

Providing Department-Specific Training Online

Williamson County EMS prides itself on staying on the cutting edge of medical research and training. “We have an extremely active medical director,” Capt. Cohen says. “We create the majority of our own education in house, and that is how we’ve always wanted to do it.”

He continues, “We needed a platform that is reliable and that lets us upload training materials, create an exam, track completion, and issue CEs.”

While looking at possible options, Capt. Cohen discovered CareerCert. “It provides everything we need at a good price point,” he says. “The simplicity of CareerCert and the fact that things work are something I can count on. That consistency has been really vital.”

Another quality that set CareerCert apart was their exceptional customer service. “They really have always taken good care of us and they’ve always been highly responsive,” Capt. Cohen says. “I don’t know when they take vacations because they are always there to answer a call or a question that we have.”

Preparing Providers During a Pandemic

Through CareerCert’s in-house course tool, Williamson County EMS has been able to easily upload, disseminate, track, and report on department-specific training online, allowing their personnel to complete training whenever it works best for their schedule.

That ability to quickly and reliably release information proved vital during the COVID-19 pandemic. “Being able to communicate at a time like this is absolutely essential, particularly in our line of work,” Capt. Cohen says. “With shift work, it’s difficult to have everyone in the same room at the same time, and in a pandemic, it would be dangerous to have everyone in the same room at the same time, so being able to communicate in a distributive session online is essential.” 

He continues, “CareerCert really is a good platform for us to do that on. It is our go-to place for online education and information, so for us to put COVID-related information there helped everyone know where to go and know how to access it quickly.”

Improving Patient Outcomes

The simplicity of the CareerCert platform helped Williamson County EMS streamline their training so that they could provide better care in critical situations. “It allows us administratively to quickly assess whether or not our folks are getting the information they need,” Capt. Cohen says. “For example, just for COVID, we put out about 10 different changes in process on a single medical directive.”

Normally, Williamson County EMS would train for months on a single process change. However, with the rapid release of new information during COVID-19, the department needed to pivot quickly. “CareerCert has given us the ability to rapidly put out information and rapidly evaluate whether certain members of our staff have viewed it,” Capt. Cohen notes.

In addition to providing critical resources during the pandemic, CareerCert has helped Williamson County EMS mitigate risk through department training.

Capt. Cohen notes, “When we notice performance measures overall system-wide have waned in one area, we can put out more training through CareerCert and provide hands-on training to make a change.”

Capt. Cohen explains his team’s approach to improving outcomes as a “full-court press,” using everything in their arsenal to make an impact. He adds, “CareerCert is an important part of the puzzle for ensuring the quality of our work.”