SAVE TIME BY LEARNING AND PERSONALIZING YOUR EHR

If you're transitioning to a new electronic health record (EHR), or still struggling to use one you've had for years, maximize your training opportunities and learn to personalize your settings. This will cost you additional time up front but save you hundreds of hours in the future. The better you understand your EHR's functionalities, the more efficiently you can navigate it during patient encounters.

For starters, attend all in-person training sessions your employer or EHR vendor offers, and ask your vendor about ongoing training for more advanced tips and tricks. One of the best ways to get additional training is to volunteer to become an EHR “superuser” (for example, I'm an Epic physician champion). At our organization, we lobbied to have additional admin time (paid time not seeing patients) for superuser physicians each week of our EHR implementation.

If you have templates or order panels you'd like to replicate in a new EHR, seek assistance from the EHR trainers or in-house IT support. Take advantage of customization options within your new system as well. You can tailor the layout, note templates, and ordering preferences to match your specific workflow and documentation needs. To limit redundant manual entries, prioritize creating smart phrases, note templates, order panels, and automated in-basket quick text. (See the FPM blog post “A starter list of EHR macros to save time on documentation.")