Electronic Health Records For Dummies

Deciding who should be involved

The process of preloading should be a team effort where everyone in the practice — physicians, nurses, medical assistants, and office staff —participate. Participation in preloading helps to familiarize everyone in the office with EHR functionality and navigation.

The preloading process should begin as soon as the system design, build, testing, and initial EHR training are complete. Six weeks prior to go-live is a good time to start. Remember that you don’t need to finish all of your charts prior to go-live. You will continue preloading after the go-live for patients that have upcoming visits.

Your practice will need to develop a policy that defines the schedule and amount of preloading for each role. Start with just a few trusted staff members, establish a review system and signature policy, and then add staff as you go:

Physicians, physician assistants, nurses, and nurse practitioners: Initiate the preload process with this staff, set a daily benchmark of a few charts, and set the policies for coding and consistency of preloaded data. You don’t want physicians preloading all of their patients, but try to have them preload 15 to 30 patients so your physicians learn how the EHR works.

Nonclinical staff, such as medical assistants and front-office personnel: After you establish policies, nonclinical staff can preload data and ensure the review system you set up continues.

Temporary staff: You may need to hire temporary staff to finish preloading data. ...