Electronic Health Records For Dummies

Developing your own talent

Even the best and most responsive vendor can’t and shouldn’t do everything for you. Your long-term success depends on cultivating your own group of the following experts who can support your end users and lead your optimization efforts:

Super users: A super user is particularly adept at using the practice’s EHR system and can teach others to use the technology. Additionally, they can serve as “champions” of the system and act as built-in technical support for other members of your staff. The super user should have extensive knowledge of the software and the workflows of the departments in the office. The number of super users you need depends on the size of your practice. With a large practice, you may need to train a super user in each staff role; with a small practice, you may need to train only one or two staff members.

After you identify the staff member(s) with the appropriate combination of technical savvy and willingness and ability to teach, you must ensure they’re provided with adequate training. Because they will be asked to perform far beyond their peers, they’ll require education that’s much more extensive than what’s given to their colleagues.

During go-live, relieve the super user of other practice duties in order to focus specifically on technical support. At go-live, the super users serve as the first line of response to staff with issues ...