Having spent vast amounts of money and endured months of disruption making a significant strategic investment, it is a sad fact that hospitals often experience suboptimal results. Busy and stressed clinicians are expected to master the user interface and new workflows of an electronic patient record (EPR) system following classroom training, and perhaps some eLearning courses. However, studies show that, retention drops up to 70% within just 24 hours following initial training.

Until recently, there was not a clear alternative to holding additional classroom training when onboarding new hires or preparing users for major system changes – once again taking clinicians away from their patients to sit in a classroom.

But solutions such as uPerform for Healthcare by ANCILE Solutions are using technology to empower clinicians to not only learn but master their new system whilst they work. uPerform for Healthcare enables a hospital’s training team and subject matter experts to quickly and easily create a range of learning materials – such as quick reference guides, videos, and even interactive simulations - for their own specific implementation, and have them accessible from within the system itself.

Overcome the ‘productivity paradox’ with higher-quality learning opportunities

Digital doctor Professor Bob Wachter, who was commissioned by the UK government to write an influential report on NHS IT, talked about the productivity paradox – the fact that it takes time for the expected benefits of healthcare IT systems to be delivered.

One reason for that is because users need to become familiar with new IT systems and start using them to reimagine their work. The need to prepare the healthcare workforce for the new world of digital delivery was also addressed recently by Eric Topol in a review for Health Education England.

Topol, founder and director of Scripps Research Translational Institute, argued that the NHS needed to develop a “culture of learning” and new ways to support educators and staff. At the moment, health and care organisations have limited educational resources and wards can find it hard to ‘back fill’ staff time spent on training; making it hard for them to effectively deliver traditional, classroom-based learning.

Deploying a major healthcare IT system is a major undertaking, and one that uPerform can support by delivering training and knowledge to users, as they need it.

Many NHS trusts report that staff who have been through traditional training sessions may still struggle with the use of IT systems on a day-to-day basis, and that this puts huge pressure on help-desks or leads sub-optimal ‘work-arounds’.

uPerform can cut help-desk calls and make sure that staff are using clinical systems in the way that they should be used. It also reduces the pressure of onboarding new users and helps staff to acquire valuable digital confidence and skills; empowering them to use systems to deliver care in the safest and most effective way possible.

ANCILE Solutions already delivers uPerform to 4,600 global customers, including a number of the leading US hospitals, who use it to train and support users on 200 of the world’s leading healthcare and business applications.