Client Background

The University of Arizona is a public research university located in Tucson, Arizona. With over 45,000 students enrolled, the university offers a variety of undergraduate and graduate programs across multiple colleges and departments. Kristie Hoch, DNP, CRNA, who serves as the Associate Clinical Professor and Program Administrator for the Nurse Anesthesiology program at the University of Arizona, has been utilizing Exxat for more than five years.

The Challenge

Need for an integrated solution for student success and staff productivity

Before implementing Exxat, the University of Arizona was facing challenges with evaluation integrity and competency-based learning, which affected success of the nurse anesthesiology residents and administrative staff/professors' productivity. These challenges placed a heavy burden on administrative staff and faculty alike.

“Having everything the nurse anesthesiology program needs in one location allows us to be responsive to our residents and clinical partners as well.”

Dr. Kristie Hoch, DNP, CRNA, MS, RRT
Associate Clinical Professor and Program Administrator University of Arizona's DNP-Nurse Anesthesiology Program

The Key Considerations

The university evaluated several options to address the challenges it faced and ultimately chose Exxat, which met all its criteria and seamlessly integrated with its existing processes. The key factors that guided the university's decision-making process included:

Of all the options considered, Exxat was the only one that offered an integrated and comprehensive solution to meet these needs, including tracking clinical rotations, clinical coordinator, and preceptor information, and monitoring the required COA data for clinical hours, cases, and evaluations.

The Implementation

The implementation of Exxat was smooth and efficient. Six team members from the University of Arizona worked directly with Exxat as administrators. The Exxat team worked closely with the university to customize the system to meet their specific needs.

During the implementation process, certain requirements from the university changed. However, the Exxat team was responsive to all questions and concerns that came up, which helped to ensure the successful implementation of the new technology. Having an implementation team that can quickly resolve any issues that arise is key to the success of any new system.

The Impact

Since implementing Exxat, the University of Arizona has seen several benefits, including:

Meeting Nurse Anesthesiology Residents' Requirements

Improved nurse anesthesiology residents’ satisfaction using Exxat’s solution to improve placements by ensuring that they are matched with appropriate clinical sites that meet their learning objectives.

Streamlining University Expenditure

Reduced university costs by eliminating the need for paper-based evaluations and reducing administrative overhead.

Efficient Monitoring of COA Data

Saved time and resources by streamlining the monitoring of the required COA data for clinical hours, cases, and evaluation processes, reducing manual data entry.

Revolutionizing Clinical Rotation Tracking

Significantly improved clinical rotation tracking, which was a major concern for the university before implementing Exxat. The ability to track everything in a single location has been a significant improvement for the university.

Exxat's Platform - a Time-Saving Tool

Reduced the workload of program administrators, freeing up their time for other critical tasks.

Suggestions

For other institutions facing similar challenges, the University of Arizona program administrator, Kristie Hoch recommends the following:

• Choose a solution that integrates seamlessly with the existing system to reduce the implementation time and cost.

• Look for a comprehensive solution that addresses all the needs, reducing the need for multiple systems.

• Consider the support and responsiveness of the vendor to ensure smooth implementation and post-implementation support.