Training your Staff on the Electronic Health Record (EHR)

It is a typical busy morning at the clinic. You notice that your staff is busy with their usual duties and functions. You decide to take a minute and instead of going into your office right away you decide to sit in the front waiting room and look around. It is amazing what you see. It is only 9:30 am on a Monday morning and the front waiting room is packed with very ill patients. You watch as your staff pulls their records, greet patients and takes down their information. You also notice there are three receptionists on the phone taking calls and making appointments for future dates. The patients are very restless and fumbling through magazines and tossing and turning in their seats. You think to yourself, how are we going to be able to implement the electronic health record in this type of a busy practice? You know that behind the scenes it is probably more hectic. You have two new medical assistants and you are still one short. The nurses are on the phone making referrals. The coding and billing section is busy dealing with insurance companies that are slow to pay and that won’t return phone calls. You take a big deep breath and decide to go in and face the challenges of the day. Two days ago first thing in the morning after taking off your coat the owner, the main physician informs you that the practice will soon be implementing the electronic health record. The physician also mentions for you not to worry that the vendor would be conducting all the training. You know in your head that the training is not the real issue at hand. You think to yourself, how are we going to stop the train or this case the practice to allow for the training? The physicians want to continue to see their patients. Does this sound like a typical day for you as an office manager at your clinic or practice? Here are some things to think about before implementing the training of electronic health record.

Planning is a very important element. Determine what records will be converted to the electronic format first. Look at what forms you have that you could train on first. Do you have any forms that are standardized? Secondly, look at your staff and their down time? It might not be the best time for training on Monday at 9:30 in the morning. You might want to pick the right time and target group. Look at your overall practice and determine if you want to go live on a certain date with a lighter load. Maybe you know that on Wednesdays your practice only deals with preventive medicine visits. Well women or well child etc. That load might be lighter and easier to implement a electronic record on. You also might want to consider hiring temporary help since you are already short handed and your clinic is busy. Also make the vendor work for you. Ask them what they have done in the past at similar large clinics. How can they streamline the process and make it work effectively?

As an office manager your role is a full one. Communication is a key. Your staff needs to be informed. Find out all the information about who the vendor is and what they will be doing. Yes, it is sad that you didn’t have any input on the selection of the electronic health record but no sense crying over spilt milk, take the bull by the horn and run with it. You have a clinic to run and now an EHR implementation project. Educate or train yourself first. Train yourself on the product, the cost, the implementation time, the training etc. Make yourself an expert. Find out what others are doing in your area. Some large clinics actually hire a project manger so that the office manager can stay focused on running the practice. I wish you the best of luck. For more information please visit http://www.healthcaretracker.org