Elsevier, Inc. (“Elsevier”) provides a single, streamlined skill assessment and e-learning package for individual staff orientation and annual competency recertification assessment at Contra Costa Health Services (CCHS). CCHS is currently using the solutions courses on The Joint Commission, OSHA Compliance, Title 22, and Infection Control Standards to record, track, and report mandatory clinical education and clinical competency requirements of staff in a single system. This e-learning system also replaced the paper-based SICR (Safety and Infection Control Review) annual training requirement for hospital and health center staff.
The Elsevier Master Agreement (“Master Agreement”) will be effective beginning October 1, 2015, and will remain in effect until terminated. The Master Agreement includes the terms under which Elsevier will provide services to the County. The services will be more particularly described in schedules issued under the Master Agreement. Schedule 1 and Schedule 2 to the Master Agreement will require Elsevier to provide the above e-learning system to the County, and to license Elsevier’s Learning Management System, for the period from December 30, 2015, through December 31, 2018. If additional schedules need to be issued in the future to provide for payment for additional services from Elsevier, the Board of Supervisors will need to approve the schedules before they will be effective.
Elsevier is currently providing the e-learning system to the County under a separate License Agreement, dated December 30, 2010, as amended on July 1, 2015 and July 15, 2015. Once this Master Agreement is effective, it will cause the prior License Agreement, as amended, to terminate.
For these reasons, Health Services Department staff recommends that the Board of Supervisors approve this item, as recommended.
CCHS education and training requirements, and operations will be severely impacted if this product is discontinued. The online e-learning clinical programs will need to be re-written and transferred to a paper system that will need to be printed and distributed manually to all staff for completion. Additional staff will be necessary to carry out the duties of printing and distributing training materials, as well as the scoring and record keeping functions associated with monitoring the education and training completed by the employees. Staff will need to attend in-person classes instead of e-learning, which will increase travel and training expenses of the organization. Due to the logistical complexities of a paper based training system, there will be more resources needed to operationalize it from an administration perspective which may create delays in training delivery and completion.