Provider engagement and training is essential to a successful EHR implementation project

As part of an immense electronic health record system implementation project Brightwork Consulting led from the beginning, our team was tasked with crafting training curriculum and materials for the entire staff. When a regional dialysis provider with 18 clinics decided it was time to switch from a legacy system with issues to a new EHR system, they needed a significant amount of engagement from staff and a comprehensive training program.

Developed as a workflow-based learning system, Brightwork’s project managers worked with 12 distinct user groups, from super users to casual users, to create a comprehensive training program that could provide guidance and solutions for any user. With 150 nurses, 230 dialysis techs, 40 LPNs and 50 physicians, the size of the program was as complex as needing to provide the training while the dialysis centers remained operational.

Brightwork’s team developed all training materials from scratch and offered as many classes as possible in four of the 18 clinics for an eight-week period

Spread over eight hours of instruction, Brightwork’s team developed all training materials from scratch and offered as many classes as possible in four of the 18 clinics for an eight-week period.

The training encompassed an ‘at-the-elbow-program’ to train super users who could then teach fellow staff and workflow-specific training for dieticians, techs, nurses, and other staff. Materials included bound booklets, tip sheets, guidebooks, presentation materials and training content for the trainers.

To promote training efforts, our team developed and implemented solution deployment tactics and utilized proven project management methodologies to lead the project to success. In just 12 months, the EHR implementation went from concept to ‘go-live’, and the length of time after go-live for technical support was cutdown to just two weeks due to the extensive training program we developed.