Electronic Health Records For Dummies

Getting your staff ready

When you decide on an EHR timeframe — even a long-term process — get your staff on board and let them know how the transition schedule will affect them.

Though EHR implementation may be two or three years away, make it a part of your office conversation and keep staff informed at regular meetings. Address some of the readiness issues you discover during assessment, and get them creating a working environment that complements EHR. Prioritize any action items, remedies, and next steps that result from the readiness assessment and ask staff to participate in finding useful solutions. If, for example, you see that your decision-making processes could use some clarification, consider that a high order concern (HOC) and dialogue about how everyone can streamline decision making. Or, if half of your office uses the “hunt-and-peck” method of typing, perhaps everyone can agree typing proficiency is a low order concern (LOC). In that case, work together to ramp up typing training but make it fun — host a typing training session with prizes, catered lunch, and an early stop time.

The key word here is together. This is your opportunity to create a stronger team, so get everyone invested in the improvements you need to make before moving to EHR.