M Health Fairview, based in Minnesota, uses innovative, scalable training methods to keep clinicians informed, trained and supported through Epic upgrades and workflow changes. These methods are part of a new paradigm that is changing how EHR training is delivered.
During a podcast featured at the Becker's Health IT + RCM virtual event, Bobby Zarr, Senior Director of Healthcare at ANCILE, interviewed Derek Harley, Learning and Development System Manager for M Health Fairview.
Three key takeaways were:
1. The pandemic forced M Health Fairview to rapidly change its learning programs. "We were already on track to shift to a hybrid model of synchronous and asynchronous training," Mr. Harley said. The plan was to complete the transition in 18 months, but the pandemic accelerated its urgency, and Mr. Harley’s team implemented its new training model in just seven days. The quick solution was rapid development of virtual instructor-led eLearning modules. A few months into the pandemic, M Health Fairview kicked off its uPerform implementation, which supplemented the existing e-learning modules with consumable, bite-sized training content created with uPerform.
2. uPerform provides EHR training content creation, management and content delivery tools in a single platform. "uPerform supports our e-Learning strategy by delivering formal training and how-to content to the right user at the right time," said Mr. Harley. The uPerform Learning Library is the central repository of all learning collateral which is accessible throughout Epic. With uPerform, relevant content is delivered to clinicians based on their role, specialty, and location in Epic. In addition, Mr. Harley explained, uPerform offers rapid content creation software, so training teams can create content such as tip sheets, videos, and simulations and make them available to clinicians from buttons and links inside Epic.
Mr. Zarr remarked that in many training organizations, especially for complex, mission-critical software such as the EHR, the volume of training content presented to clinicians in file shares or across multiple repositories can be overwhelming. "Most of that content is unrelated or irrelevant," he said. "Being able to pinpoint the right content to the right user reduces that noise."
3. Training is experiencing a digital paradigm shift. "In late 2019, I would have never considered that technical training could be done well outside of the classroom," Mr. Harley said. Now his view is, "We don't see ourselves going back into the classroom." He sees the future as a digital training strategy, which involves curating content provided by Epic and constantly generating new content. For example, in today's social media world, he envisions one-minute, rough-cut training videos that provide quick learning. He envisions using uPerform's latest enhancement that enables accessing the uPerform Learning Library on mobile devices. "I think that's where the future of learning is. It is getting content in short bites in the hands of our end users when they need it, in a way that works for them."
To support this transition, his organization has invested in its learning development and training delivery teams to design and facilitate virtual and on demand training. Mr. Harley sees learning in Epic as "ongoing; you are not going to stop learning in Epic . . . so we need to be able to create and distribute that training material."
"We're on the cusp of a training revolution where we create content that the end user can use that is timely, relevant and functional," Mr. Zarr said. "Let's put training in the hands of the user when and where they need it."