Support system: Making the most of technology

If your practice is going to get all it can out of its technology, everyone on staff needs to know how to use at least some of it. Here's how to ensure the right people get the right training.

By Tyler Chin, AMNews staff. Aug. 12, 2002.

Adding computers to your practice isn't just a matter of opening the boxes, plugging them in and turning them on. Somebody is responsible for training staff how to use them and making sure new employees learn about the computer system as well. That somebody is you.

Decisions start as soon as you order new software and never really stop. Do I have the vendor train everybody on staff? Am I better off having the vendor train one person and then having that person train everyone else? Who should that person be? Does everyone need to know how every bell and whistle works? Should I just have everyone read the manual? Does everyone need some sort of continuing education?

John Gastright, MD, an internist in Charleston, S.C., faced these questions last year when he bought practice management and electronic medical records software from Companion Technologies so his practice could go paperless. He paid the Columbia, S.C.-based company to train him and his nurse in using the EMR system and to train his office manager, Marilyn Myers, in using the practice management system,

Following this initial training, the office manager then trained the nonclinical staff, the nurse trained the nurse assistants and Dr. Gastright trained the two physicians he hired after buying the software.

"I paid a trainer to come in and actually train me because I thought that I could communicate to the doctors what they needed to know faster than a trainer could," Dr. Gastright said.

Other physicians who buy technology say they initially select key employees to be trained by outside trainers and then have those employees become in-house trainers. They say they find that strategy more efficient and cost-effective than relying on external trainers. It also gives them more control over their operations. [...]