Aug 31 , 2016

Best Practices in EMR Training

More than ever before, healthcare organizations and medical practices have access to resources and evidence-based EMR training programs developed from years of implementations across the globe. These insights contribute to best practices in EMR training that can help ensure an effective training period and overall successful medical records system implementation.

Make Buy-In a Part of your EMR Training Plan

No records system training program will be successful without buy-in from providers and staff. Commitment, enthusiasm, and ownership from training leaders such as the executive team, sponsors, and project leads is equally critical. One of the best ways to foster buy-in and commitment from providers and staff is to demonstrate palpable, evidence-based improvements that EHR adoption can offer. These improvements often include fewer mistakes and tightened clinical efficiency, but good optimization can even offer workplace benefits such as increased job satisfaction.

Be Realistic About EMR Training Outcomes

Choosing realistic training parameters starts from the beginning: selecting your training team. Carefully choosing in-house trainers based on organizational role, IT capabilities, and clinical responsibilities can help to foster buy-in as well as facilitate training and implementation. But realism is critical here, too; it can be easy to overburden practice administration with training responsibilities, for example, illustrating the importance of thoughtful planning at each stage of EMR training.

Setting realistic and appropriate training timelines, with enough allotted time for thorough instruction, will save time and frustration down the road and set the stage for the best possible patient outcomes. A hurried training session can result in anything from billing mistakes to more serious consequences for patients.

Finally, understand that your providers and staff will be processing a lot of information quickly. This means that more likely than not, repeat training will be necessary for the future. Both on an organizational and an individual scale, appropriate follow-up and additional training as needed is important for the overall success of an EHR implementation.

Take Advantage of EMR Customization

EMR Training

The enormous benefits of EHR customization are becoming more and more widely recognized, in particular with their excellent capacity to support best practices in clinical environments. And just as there is no one-size-fits-all electronic medical records system, your training processes should reflect the needs of your specific records system, providers, staff, and overall organization. In short, tailoring your training program to fit the needs of your practice is just as important as tailoring the records system itself.

Use All of Your Resources

Nobody knows your practice better than you and your staff. That’s why having a number of key in-house players assigned to training roles is so important in EHR implementation. But while you are the expert on your practice, it’s also important to consider the expertise of the EHR vendor themselves as a resource for training and support. Utilizing a blend of in-house and vendor-supported training can leverage both of these sources of expertise for the best possible outcomes.

Our experts at ZH Healthcare understand that an electronic medical records system is simply a tool to help you do what you do best: provide excellent healthcare services. That’s why our HITaaS (Health IT as a Service) systems support best practices through unique customization, data management, and training tailored to your unique organization.