LifeSpring Health Systems Partners With Relias for Growth and Innovative Training Solutions

Since 1964, LifeSpring Health Systems has served the healthcare needs of its community. Founded in Jeffersonville, Indiana, the organization has expanded to 11 locations across the state, including six federally qualified health centers (FQHCs). Through this growth, the organization has been able to expand the treatments offered across the continuum of care, offering primary care and mental health services.

The need to train staff across such a wide range of services is what led LifeSpring to become a Relias customer. “We have 11 different locations, so trying to get training out to everyone in a timely manner, it’s hard to do, and we’re looking at Relias to help us do that,” explained Mary Roby, Vice President of Human Resources of LifeSpring’s Western Division.

A Relias customer since 2007, LifeSpring has taken full advantage of the scalability of the Relias Platform. As the organization has grown and expanded the care provided, leaders have used Relias to continuously offer training to their staff — no matter their location or specialty.

Courses for Specific Training Needs

According to its mission statement, LifeSpring seeks “to improve and sustain the quality of life in our communities by providing comprehensive behavioral health, addiction, primary care, and related services.” To achieve these goals, the LifeSpring team needed a training program that could cover:

• Compliance requirements
• Community mental health training
• Continuing education units (CEUs) for their clinicians

According to Roby, LifeSpring looked at several platforms but couldn’t find one that fit its niche. This is where Relias stepped in.

“We have 11 different locations, so trying to get training out to everyone is hard to do, and we’re looking at Relias to help us do that.”

“One of the things that we love about Relias is that you have the trainings that are specific to Health and Human Services functions. There are a lot of training platforms out there but none that we’ve found that are specific to our industry and requirements for our licensures. You just can’t be beat with what you’re providing. And we really appreciate that because if we had to do it all ourselves, it would be monumental,” Roby said.

Using the Relias Platform, LifeSpring offers its staff and clinicians all the training they need, all within one system.

Making Training Easier

The need for training, particularly compliance and accreditation training, is a constant for all human services organizations. To many, organizing and tracking this training means a plethora of spreadsheets, Microsoft Word documents, or even paper forms. For LifeSpring, the continued growth of the organization has only made these issues keener.

“One of the things that we love about Relias is that you have the trainings that are specific to Health and Human Services functions…You just can’t be beat with what you’re providing.”

With Relias, LifeSpring has been able to simplify the training process.

“There’s a lot of opportunity for training to be integrated into Relias, so we have one place where everybody goes for their training,” Roby explained. “And that’s what we’re trying to get to: that if you need to take training at LifeSpring, you go to Relias to see what’s available.”

As a statewide agency, including six brick-and-mortar FQHCs, one mobile FQHC, and several in-school programs, bringing on and training new staff can also be a challenge. In 2021, for instance, LifeSpring hired 191 new staff members, who combined accounted for 4,437 hours of coursework. The ability to store and access all training within the Relias Platform helped LifeSpring streamline its onboarding process.

“As we’re bringing on new staff, we can get the basic training out to them on the first day,” Roby said. “And then we can track to make sure they’re getting it completed.”

Administrators can easily assign courses and track staff members’ progress through those courses. This allows LifeSpring to ensure all staff members across the state receive the training they need when they need it.

Continuing To Innovate Training

As the world continues to adjust to the new normal that COVID-19 has imposed, more and more organizations are looking to make their training virtual. With staff spread out across so many locations, LifeSpring sees virtual training as the next step in its organizational innovation.

As they prepare to take this next step, LifeSpring leaders value Relias as a partner in this initiative.

“We’ve talked about needing to utilize the taping of our sessions so that we can offer our live trainings beyond just one time,” Roby said.

Using the Relias Platform, LifeSpring hopes to offer pre-recorded live sessions so employees can receive their live training credits virtually. As LifeSpring continues to bring on new staff to serve the needs of the community, virtual training will allow the organization to scale its training efforts without adding extra operational expenses.