Electronic Medical Records

[KRSLPN, LPN]

The LTC facility I am employed at is about to begin using an EMR system.

For those whose facilities already use them, how quickly did the staff take to the system.

Any tips for using it to its maximum potential?

[CapeCodMermaid, RN]

We are in the middle of rolling out an EMH system. My advice---schedule mandatory trainings for all the staff. Roll one section out at a time and keep going back to make sure they 'get it'. I thought our system was easy...open an assessment, click on the correct answers, click next page, and continue till you're done. Apparently, no one knew what next page meant since they all stopped after the first page....more training to begin tomorrow.

[ktwlpn, LPN]

The LTC facility I am employed at is about to begin using an EMR system.

For those whose facilities already use them, how quickly did the staff take to the system.

Any tips for using it to its maximum potential?

You can't assume that everyone is computer savy. At my facility there are several staff members who don't own PC's and hated every minute of the process. Bottom line-they all have to embrace the change and be willing to learn or you'll be weeding out a few. Even the most "user friendly" appearing system has it's kinks. After a year we still have nurses who are struggling and it's the pool nurses who may not have to enter orders or do an admission more then once or twice every 3 to 4 months.They all have been more then willing to get extra help so staff dev is continuing to work with them.

Our facility asked for volunteers to perform the initial order entry-if would have been beneficial if everyone got to spend one day doing that but it didn't happen.The initial group of volunteers ending up sticking with it through completion because it was such a cluster f**** at the start.

We still aren't using it to the maximum potential-no care plans!

[chrisrn24]

One thing that may be beneficial is offering a typing class to nurses who don't regularly use computers. I notice some of the nurses on our floor still jab each individual key while charting which is a big waste of time. I type close to 60/70 words a minute so it's easy for me to chart but many of my fellow nurses still have to search the keyboard for each letter. It would be beneficial for your budget and staff sanity to offer typing class!