Home

  • Home
    • » e-Newsletters

Tip of the week: Don't use only one kind of EHR training

EHR Connection, March 5, 2007

When it comes to training, one size doesn't fit all. Consider breaking down your EHR training by specialty, in a peer-to-peer model.

Joel N. Diamond, MD, FAAFP, implemented an inpatient EHR, including 100% adoption of CPOE at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) St. Margaret Memorial Hospital. This was one of the first successful community hospital installations in the United States. The organization developed the training materials in-house.

He took the most respected leader from each specialty and had those physicians teach their colleagues. In fact, the chair of orthopedics' training session had a 100% attendance rate. Diamond knew staff would be more likely to attend a training event hosted by a peer than one hosted by an outside training vendor.

Diamond also knew that he needed to anticipate every possible excuse he'd hear from physicians about why they couldn't attend a training session or didn't need to learn about a module.

So, UPMC offered an incentive to physicians who attended a training session-they'd receive remote access privileges. "We were not going to let people slip through the cracks," Diamond said.

Most Popular