Something that we talk about being an important piece of the implementation puzzle is having someone on your staff be the team leader.
But do you know who on your team would be the best leader and have enough bandwidth to devote to the task? We've come up with a few key characteristics we think make up the person who is most suited to lead your team towards implementation and training success.
4 Characteristics of a Great EHR Implementation and Training Leader
Someone Who Understands the Entire Practice
One of the most important things is that your leader should be someone who really understands the workflow throughout the entire practice. Maybe this is the employee that's been around the longest, or maybe it's your office manager. Having a good understanding of everyone's role in the practice, how they work together, and how the software will impact their job are important things your leader should have knowledge of.
Someone Well-Respected with a Positive Attitude
The implementation and training period with new software can get a little bumpy at times so establishing a leader that is able to maintain a positive attitude and is well-respected by the team will go a long way. If your leader is complaining about the changes it's going to bring down the entire team and make the process that much harder on everyone in the office. Your leader is going to be interacting with everyone and making sure that everyone is doing their part to implement and learn the new system.
Someone Who Can Be the Point of Contact
Your leader should be someone who has or will have a relationship with the software vendor. Keeping in contact and resolving any questions or problems will be on the shoulders of your leader, so make sure they are available, able to communicate concerns and problems, and are also able to relay this information back to the entire team.
Someone With the Ability to Hold Staff Accountable
In order to keep your implementation and training on track you need to be holding your team accountable for keeping up with their training tasks. Your leader should be helping your staff make training a priority so that everyone can come together in the end and successfully use the system that everyone has been working hard to learn. If just one team member doesn't do their part in learning the system, it could bottleneck your workflow and slow it down.
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Originally published in April 2016