Imagine this: It’s 8:45 a.m. You enter the practice where you work and are met with five patients in the reception room, 23 voicemails, and 15 faxes. A steady stream of all occurs throughout the day, along with some last-minute emergency patients and the need for you to fill in for a sick co-worker in the pre-testing area.

For most allied health staff, this isn’t difficult to imagine; it’s often their daily reality. In recognizing this, electronic health record (EHR) and electronic medical record (EMR) companies have assisted with staff training on upgrades to their platforms with a focus on both individual learning styles (eg, visual, auditory, etc.) and staff’s availability vs. a specific timetable.

Here, representatives from some of the major companies that offer EHR for ophthalmology practices discuss this training.*

Compulink

EHR: Ophthalmology Advantage

Website: compulinkadvantage.com/ophthalmology/

Staff training on software upgrades: “Compulink delivers enhancement details and how-to videos related to each user’s role in the practice directly to their desktop every week. Our clients can explore more at their convenience in Compulink University, our 24/7 online learning portal,” explains Heather Bush-Reyes, COT, the company’s director of product management. “Interactive pre-release ‘What’s Coming’ sessions encourage client feedback in terms of user intuitiveness and additional desired features.”

Ms. Bush-Reyes adds that those clients who may need more detailed training can use their designated Compulink training installment hours: “These hours are part of their product support,” she points out. “Specifically, clients can schedule one-on-one training with an EHR training specialist.”

ModMed

EHR: Electronic Medical Assistant (EMA)

Website: modmed.com/ophthalmology/

Staff training on software upgrades: Michael Rivers, MD, senior director of ophthalmology at ModMed, notes the company provides “ModMed Communities,” a client portal where clients can find written release notes, video tutorials, webinars, and an area where they can post questions and comments. Additionally, he says the company has an ophthalmology training team on hand to help allied health staff acclimate to the upgrade.

“‘ModMed Communities’ points out specific ophthalmology content that’s been enhanced, and it provides a sandbox, or test environment, that is updated a month ahead of an upgrade launch, so the client can try out the new features and decide when to implement the upgrade,” he explains. “The ophthalmology-specific training team is on hand to provide one-on-one webinars and even visit the practice location to assist with an upgrade, if needed. We’re big on staying in contact with clients, so we can determine their needs.”

NextGen

EHR: NextGen Office (small practices) and NextGen Enterprise (mid-size to enterprise practices)

Website: nextgen.com/markets/specialties/ophthalmology

Staff training on software upgrades: “We offer documentation, such as user guides, live and recorded webinars, e-learning, where staff can click through an upgrade before it becomes available and start to create that muscle memory; lunch-and-learns, ‘Success Community,’ a client portal for discussing best practices and asking questions of their peers, and an upgrade team, if needed, to help staff become accustomed to the upgrade,” says Christy Bollinger, director of Specialty Solutions, who oversees the ophthalmic content in NextGen’s EHR platforms. “We also provide something called ‘Day One Impact,’ which lets the operators of the EHR know exactly what they can expect once they initiate an upgrade. We don’t want somebody to feel like they don’t have the tools they need to be successful, so we do everything in our power to make sure we’re giving them exactly what they need.”

Further facilitation

Dr. Rivers adds that the practices that achieve success with EHR upgrades tend to be the ones that designate one allied health staff member as a point person. Specifically, this person is responsible for determining the best time to upgrade, which form of staff training will be most effective per employee, and whether additional help from the EHR company is needed.

“One staff member ‘owning’ the relationship with the EHR vendor makes it easier for the vendor to understand what is needed and when vs. possibly hearing an array of different things from different staff members,” he says. OP

* Eye Care Leaders, Nextech, and EyeMD could not be reached for comment.