Measure Your Medical Practice Staff Tech Skills

Before you begin training staff to use a new EHR or practice management system, it's a good idea to assess their overall comfort level and experience with using technology. Staff members with low computer literacy should receive basic skills training so they can take full advantage of vendor training during implementation. Without that foundation, they may feel lost and never achieve true proficiency with the new system, experts say. Here is a basic skills assessment survey recommended by CMS. Employees are instructed to indicate how familiar they are with various tasks or skills on a scale from 1 (no experience) to 5 (very comfortable).

Desktop skills:

• Safely turn computer on and off

• Restart your computer if it becomes locked

• Open a program using the Start menu

• Name the basic computer system parts

• Explain the terms: icon, menu, window, click, select, drag

• Use scroll bars and move, resize, and close windows

• Use help screens in the software programs

• Navigate among folders, create, name, and delete folders

• Copy or move a file from one folder to another

• Cut or copy and paste text

Internet skills

• Use a Web browser

• Recognize a URL

• Explain the terms ISP, website, home page, search engine

• Type a URL in an open box

• Use back and forward buttons to move through Web pages

• Create a bookmark

• Locate and click on links

• Use a search engine

• Print a Web page

For more assessment tools to download, visit bit.ly/EHR-adoption-tips.