Local Company Given Boost By Proposed House Bill, Online Behavioral Health Training Company Saves Health Care Costs, Signs Two Major Contracts

A local San Diego company serve as a prime example of how online learning solutions can help save funds for health care organizations. If the new Clinton and Gingrich bill passes, Essential Learning will be a partner in the cause to create IT solutions to quickly manage the behavior health training for health care organizations and upgrade the continuing education for their staff.

SAN DIEGO, CA (PRWEB) July 19, 2005 -- A local company has been energized by Sen. Hilary Rodham Clinton and former House Speaker Newt Gingrichs support of a bill which proposes to provide grants to health care organizations that create IT systems and networks.

Essential Learning, a provider of online training services to over 90 behavioral health and human service organizations around the country, has reported increased attention to their services since the announcement of support from Gingrich and Client regarding bill HR 2234, and today the company announced two new contracts, with ProtoCall Services, the nation's leading provider of third-party clinical call center services and Cenpatico Arizona, the Regional Behavioral Health Authority for Yuma, Gila, Pinal and La Paz counties in Arizona.

Typical of contracts that may be covered if the new bill passes, Essential Learning will provide a customized Learning Management System that will allow ProtoCall to provide online behavioral health training to their employees and efficiently manage their staff training requirements, both online and classroom-based.

ProtoCall chose Essential Learning as a new E-Learning partner in part because of the large online library offered by Essential Learning, which features over 200 accredited courses with 2-3 new courses added each month.

According to Bradley Pendergraft, ProtoCall's Director of Clinical Operations, "ProtoCall's mission is all about improving access to services, so providing our customers with cost-effective, easy access to these training resources is yet another way to help them fulfill their own mission."

Cenpatico will be providing the Essential Learning system to its network of behavioral healthcare providers throughout the four counties it serves. The system will allow the providers to comply with training requirements set by the Arizona Department of Health/Division of Behavioral Health Services and will assist Cenpatico in standardizing and assuring the quality of training offered to network.

Essential Learning's online services save healthcare organizations costs associated with mandatory training and cuts travel costs and time away from the job for employees. According to Essential Learning, there is also research that suggests online learning is more effective method of learning for adults.

"This is an exciting time for IT-based healthcare systems, and our agreements with ProtoCall and Cenpatico to provide our learning management system and online course library to assist them with employee training is a perfect, practical example of how IT can cut health care costs " said Susan Erskine, CEO of Essential Learning. Aside from costs, our existing customers will also benefit from the behavioral health training courses that we will soon be developing in cooperation with ProtoCall's clinical experts."

For More Information:
ESSENTIAL LEARNING, founded in 2002, is based in San Diego and has rapidly grown to become the largest provider of online behavior health training services to human service organizations. The mission of Essential Learning is to provide cost effective and customer-focused E-learning to assist organizations to increase regulatory compliance, improve staff performance, upgrade mental health training and maintain high quality client services. Essential Learning provides a web-based Learning Management System and courses for organizations that provide behavioral health, developmental disability, child welfare and substance abuse services. Essential learning also provides a web-based continuing education site, www.CEQuick.com, where clinical professionals can purchase behavior health training courses to meet license renewal requirements. For more information or a live demo, visit Essential Learning's website, www.essentiallearning.com, or call 800-729-9198.

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