Health Technology Integration for Clinical, Patient Records and Financial Management Related to the Military.

摘要

The purpose of this study is to determine the relative effectiveness of different staff training approaches for nurses regarding the usage of a newly-implemented electronic health records (EHR) system at a large hospital. The study compares the effectiveness of training that included a web-based component to a fully classroom-based program in developing knowledge of the EHR system s procedures and eventual successful utilization of the system. We examined the number of total hours of training and technical support needed to achieve proficiency with the use of the system, and the relationship between staff characteristics and the amount of follow-up support required to achieve proficiency. Our first key finding is that the substitution of a web-based component for part of the training curriculum versus only utilizing standard classroom training had no measureable effect on training outcomes. Our second key finding is that nurses with higher levels of education and general computer proficiency required fewer total hours of training and support to achieve proficiency with the EHR system. These findings suggest that the use of web- based training for some users based on an initial screening for general computer proficiency could generate substantial cost savings in large hospital systems such as military hospitals in the nationwide transition and upgrades to EHR systems.