Training the EMR: A Case Based Perspective - Best Practices and Training the Trainer

Part Three of a Four-Part Series

It is estimated that only 5% of hospitals in the US have a completely electronic medical record system (EMR). Given this statistic and wide-spread public support for President Obama's healthcare reform initiative, the EMR is standing on the eve of an era of accelerating growth. In the first two articles in this series, Training the EMR: A Case-Based Perspective and Training the EMR: A Case Based Perspective - Drilling Down, I have compared this position to pioneering on a new frontier and have discussed some of the challenges and decisions clinicians and trainers face in "charting" new territory. In this third and final article I want to briefly comment on training the trainer and best practices in training the EMR.

Training the EMR: A Case-Based Perspective - The Patient's Point of View

Part Four of a Four-Part Series

I thought I had completed my 3 part series on Training the EMR:

• Training the EMR: A Case-Based Perspective
• Training the EMR: A Case-Based Perspective - Drilling Down
• Training the EMR: A Case-Based perspective - Best Practices and Training the
  Trainer

But then, as fate would have it, I landed back in the middle of it with an unexpected trip to the ER this summer.

Training the EMR: A Case-Based Perspective - Drilling Down

Part Two of a Four-Part Series

In the first part of this series, we took a look, from a case-based perspective, at some of the general complexities and challenges faced  in implementing a new Electronic Medical Record System. In part two, I want to drill down a bit more to look at some of the barriers and challenges that clinicians and trainers encounter as they try to learn and use an EMR. I will also offer up some suggestions, as a jumping-off place for considering solutions.

Training the EMR: A Case-Based Perspective

Part One of a Four-Part Series

I have had some interesting and intensive encounters with hospitals in the past six months. I am currently sitting in the rarified atmosphere of the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, MD. My family and I are in the Family Surgery Waiting Area while my brother is two hours into a craniotomy for removal of a brain tumor. Only last December I spent about ten days on the East coast hanging around the Neuro ICU at Fairfax Inova Hospital in Virginia. In between I briefly worked as a trainer for a Electronic Medical Record System at a brand new hospital built by a local outpatient care organization in our community.