Rollout & Training

What the launch week looks like

Typical setup is about one week from signup to launch. The eClinicalWorks connection is normally done within one to three days. Text message registration for your number takes about five days, so it is started on the first day because it sets the pace for everything else.

While those run in the background, the practice work happens: deciding rules, naming transfer destinations and preparing the front desk. Most of the effort is decisions, not technical work.

Decisions to make in the first days

Get these settled early. Everything else can be refined after launch, but these shape the first calls.

Assign one owner on your side for the whole list. A practice manager who can get a physician's answer the same day keeps the week on schedule; a list that waits for the next partners' meeting does not.

• The visit types Katie may book, and their lengths
• Providers, locations and office hours
• Which calls transfer to staff, and to whom
• Escalation rules your physicians approve for urgent and clinical calls
• After-hours handling, and who reviews overnight summaries

Training the front desk

Staff training is short because the job changes less than people fear. The desk still owns the patient at the window, clinical follow-up, and anything Katie routes to them. What changes is that they work from structured summaries instead of voicemails and sticky notes.

Show each role what reaches them. Schedulers see booked visits already on the eClinicalWorks schedule, nurses see refill and symptom summaries, and billing sees payment questions. If you use MedReception Autopilot, install it on the browsers of the staff who will file summaries to charts.

Switching on in stages

Many practices go live with overflow and after hours first, read summaries for a few days, then move more calls to Katie. Others switch everything on at once. Either way, plan a check-in at the end of the first week to adjust rules based on real calls.

Tell staff plainly what is not changing: nobody's clinical judgment is being automated, and patients who want a person can still reach one during office hours.

Telling patients

Most practices do not make an announcement. Patients notice that the phone is answered and that booking is quicker. If you want to say something, a line on your website or hold message that the practice now answers every call, day and night, is enough. Keep the focus on what patients get, not on the technology.

Do brief the staff who talk to patients most, so they can answer if someone mentions the new phone experience at the window.