07 Mar EHR Implementation Tips & Tricks for Smooth Transitions
The final stage is activation, where you go live with your EHR. Be sure to assess your performance and identify your knowledge gaps. If you have any, consider buying additional training so you and your staff get off on the right foot. Also, use free resources such as training webinars to enhance your knowledge of your new EHR system.
What are the Most Common Pitfalls in an EHR Implementation?
Some of the most common missteps in defining your strategy or implementation are in communication, engagement, and responsibility. If you haven’t established firm communication with your vendor of choice, establish who is responsible for that communication and who, internally, is leading the project. It can be a bumpy ride.
It’s essential that you’re clear about who is responsible for engaging, meeting deadlines, and making sure you hit your milestones along the way, and that there’s a responsibility each time you engage with your EHR. The person chosen to interface with your vendor needs to have the authority to make decisions in the moment without running them by someone else. And, of course, you should avoid entering into an implementation while you’re undergoing construction or going through credentialing or other really big components that could impact your wanting to pursue your project further.
How Can My EHR Implementation Experience Go Smoothly?
The most important thing you can do to ensure a smooth experience is to fully commit to your training and to learning, and to practice, practice, practice. Do more than just show up. Apply what you’ve learned to what you’re going to be doing day in and day out. Once you’re live, you don’t want to find yourself stuck and thinking, “Oh no. I know how I used to do this, but I don’t know how to apply all these new things that I’ve seen in training.” Practice is incredibly important.
Which isn’t to say you might not still find yourself stuck at some point, and that’s ok. That’s when you need to be willing to raise your hand and say, “This isn’t working for me. I need to approach this in a different way.” Because we don’t all learn in the same way, and no two pediatric practices look the same. Making sure you show up and that you do your part lets your vendor adapt to your learning needs as you go.
Finally, don’t look at training as a one-and-done situation. If an e-learning module is available two weeks before you go live, don’t just take it on that day and leave it alone till launch day. Come back to it in the interim. Review it. Put in the effort to do your part, and remember that preparation on the part of the learner is just as important as preparation on the part of the implementation team.
It sounds easy, and it should be. Of course, not every implementation will be a textbook transition, but being present, engaged, and willing to put in the work goes a long way toward ensuring that it is.
EHRs are the key to streamlining operations, identifying efficiencies and gaps in care, and freeing up valuable time for you and your staff. OP’s pediatric EHR offers features designed to help keep your practice’s financial and clinical operations running smoothly so you can focus on your patients. Contact us today to learn how Office Practicum can help your pediatric practice operate at its best.
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We’ve all been new at something before. Whether that’s riding a bike, cooking an unfamiliar dish, learning to play an instrument, or trying a new sport. Trying something new is hard. And we all know that even the simplest of new things may be fraught with some amount of uncertainty. So what happens when a practice decides to work with an electronic health record (EHR) they’ve never used before? As you can imagine, the lift is neither a simple or easy one, and it takes special people with unique skills to help that along. That’s why you need to rely on your EHR implementation team to guide you.
What does Implementation Involve?
Any implementation has stages. It typically begins with a discovery phase, during which you define the problem you are solving, determine what success looks like, and determine your degree of commitment to the change. This is often a data collection phase for both parties.
From there, you transition to alignment. In stage 2, your timelines are confirmed, and goals are set. Preferably, these are small milestones and short, easily achievable goals that continue throughout the process.
Then, you move on to stage 3, which is validation. At this point, virtual learning and training should be well underway. Ensure your team is adopting best practices by practicing in the system. Rewrite internal processes and reinforce new workflows, all of which should be supported by training.
The final stage is activation, where you go live with your EHR. Be sure to assess your performance and identify your knowledge gaps. If you have any, consider buying additional training so you and your staff get off on the right foot. Also, use free resources such as training webinars to enhance your knowledge of your new EHR system.
What are the Most Common Pitfalls in an EHR Implementation?
Some of the most common missteps in defining your strategy or implementation are in communication, engagement, and responsibility. If you haven’t established firm communication with your vendor of choice, establish who is responsible for that communication and who, internally, is leading the project. It can be a bumpy ride.
It’s essential that you’re clear about who is responsible for engaging, meeting deadlines, and making sure you hit your milestones along the way, and that there’s a responsibility each time you engage with your EHR. The person chosen to interface with your vendor needs to have the authority to make decisions in the moment without running them by someone else. And, of course, you should avoid entering into an implementation while you’re undergoing construction or going through credentialing or other really big components that could impact your wanting to pursue your project further.
How Can My EHR Implementation Experience Go Smoothly?
The most important thing you can do to ensure a smooth experience is to fully commit to your training and to learning, and to practice, practice, practice. Do more than just show up. Apply what you’ve learned to what you’re going to be doing day in and day out. Once you’re live, you don’t want to find yourself stuck and thinking, “Oh no. I know how I used to do this, but I don’t know how to apply all these new things that I’ve seen in training.” Practice is incredibly important.
Which isn’t to say you might not still find yourself stuck at some point, and that’s ok. That’s when you need to be willing to raise your hand and say, “This isn’t working for me. I need to approach this in a different way.” Because we don’t all learn in the same way, and no two pediatric practices look the same. Making sure you show up and that you do your part lets your vendor adapt to your learning needs as you go.
Finally, don’t look at training as a one-and-done situation. If an e-learning module is available two weeks before you go live, don’t just take it on that day and leave it alone till launch day. Come back to it in the interim. Review it. Put in the effort to do your part, and remember that preparation on the part of the learner is just as important as preparation on the part of the implementation team.
It sounds easy, and it should be. Of course, not every implementation will be a textbook transition, but being present, engaged, and willing to put in the work goes a long way toward ensuring that it is.
EHRs are the key to streamlining operations, identifying efficiencies and gaps in care, and freeing up valuable time for you and your staff. OP’s pediatric EHR offers features designed to help keep your practice’s financial and clinical operations running smoothly so you can focus on your patients. Contact us today to learn how Office Practicum can help your pediatric practice operate at its best.
