Welcome to Instinct – let’s do this!
We will be supporting your hospital through our Virtual Go-Live Program. Instead of having Instinct teammates on site, we’ll be there virtually every step of the way!
Rest assured that our team is experienced and dedicated to helping you thrive throughout this process! Please consider this your handy guide for a successful virtual install of Instinct EMR.
Overview of Virtual Go-Live
Our Virtual Go-Live Program is designed to mimic us being there in person, ensuring success with Instinct from day one.
To start, we will be mailing you an Instinct Chromebook. This will be used exclusively to have live/on-demand video with our expert support team during go-live at set times we’ll determine with you.
Go-Live Video Link & Devices
These Chromebook devices are simple to use and will include instructions for launching video using your unique Go-Live Video Link.
Think of these devices as replacements for us being on-site in person. These devices are durable and meant to be used anywhere in the hospital. They are also insured so your team can use them without concern for damage! At the end of go-live, you’ll simply mail them back to us.
Your unique Zoom Go-Live link can also also be used on other devices during go-live. Zoom will be used for video conferencing, phone calls, and webinars. Our team will be available to ask questions and do screen shares during go-live using this link at the designated shift times.
Instinct Support Chat
Instinct EMR has live, support chat built into our program. Staff will be able to log in to and use the chat provided for questions 24/7/365.
Virtual Go-Live Checklist
Finally, we created a checklist for your team to help keep you organized. This includes your key people, training schedules, and more!
We’ll be providing a link to your Go-Live Checklist and unique Go-Live Video room soon.
Preparing for Go-Live
Team Communication Ahead of Go-Live
A well-informed team is the first step towards a successful change.
We recommend sending out announcements to your hospital regularly leading up to go-live and posting signs throughout the workplace about the upcoming change.
Meet Careville and Designating Superusers
Get to Know Careville: Careville is Instinct’s official training home base containing short videos, training guides, and new feature lists. All superusers and staff should be familiar with this before go-live. We highly recommend sharing this site to all your staff well in advance so they can review all the training material before go-live.
Pick a Go-Live Captain: The Go-Live Captain will be the main superuser on your team that leads the transition to Instinct EMR. The Captain will ensure that the staff has reviewed the training materials and scheduled the recommended training (see Go-Live Day below).
Pick a Medical Lead: Your medical lead can be a medical director, lead veterinarian, or assigned veterinarian and may be the same person as the Go-Live Captain. This leader will assist/review Chart documents and Treatment Sheets while supervising the transition by following our Medical and Workflow Guidelines.
Pick Other Superusers: Additional superusers will assist the Medical Lead and Captain during go-live. These users should be scheduled to work during go-live and ideally cover all shifts.
Designate Users with Admin Access: Designate those that will have admin access in Instinct. These users will be trusted to configure settings and the Instinct Support Team will schedule a separate training specific for admin users (see below).
Training Meetings Ahead of Go-Live
Admin User Training: This training will be geared for your administrators and will include the details about how to configure Instinct settings and admin features.
Superuser Training: The Instinct Support Team will schedule a separate training for all the superusers and Medical Lead ahead of go-live. This training usually takes 2 hours (can be split up into two sessions if preferred) and is conducted via video/screen share.
Front Desk Training: Front desk training will be done separately from the superuser and admin training and should include most of your front desk staff. This training is relatively shorter (usually about 45-60 minutes) and will be done ahead of go-live. You may want to consider delegating a front desk lead that will help facilitate and monitor the scheduling of appointments and check in / check out processes for the days of go-live.
Require Staff to Read Careville Articles: We have extremely informative and easy to consume articles on Careville. We strongly recommend all staff are required to read these ahead of go-live. Administrators can also create a checklist of all staff members and mark down who has reviewed the training materials.
Installation and Logging In
Instinct should be installed on all of your workstations well ahead of go-live and you will receive detailed instructions for this. If you work with a separate IT company, please coordinate with them to have the installation completed and tested at least two weeks before go-live.
After that, the customer support team will let you know when your database is live and you can log in. We recommend testing it once we let you know!
Set Up TV Monitors to Display Status Boards
TV mode in Instinct allows you to view your Status Boards on large screen TVs hung vertically in a main treatment or reception area. The TV allows for better communication throughout the hospital regarding the volume of patients and their care, and we recommend having one TV for Inpatients and one TV for Outpatients. A specific TV mode login is used for viewing only (0000 or 000000 depending on your PIN setup) and does not log out after 5 minutes of inactivity. Once displayed, your Status Board can be filtered depending on where the monitor is located in the hospital.
💡Protip: Learn how to set up your TV monitor in our handy Careville article, How do I put Instinct on a TV screen?
Distributing Login Information
All staff members should know their unique login information before go-live. Logins are confidential and should not be displayed for all staff to see. You should decide on a plan to distribute these beforehand.
Staff Scheduling for Go-Live
While not necessary, some hospitals consider scheduling procedures and/or appointments lightly during the first day of go-live.
If training demos are scheduled during the days of go-live, you may want to consider having staff come in if they are scheduled ‘off’ to view the training. Of course, this is also optional especially if staff view the training materials before go-live.
Finally, be sure to schedule the superusers accordingly on go-live days. If your hospital has several departments, you may want to schedule a superuser for each department to assist during the transition.
Day Before Go-Live
Prepare Your Status Boards
The Go-Live Captain should work with your Front Desk Leads to review the Appointment Calendar and check-in/check out process.
If any test patients are checked in to Instinct, you can move them to the Boarding Board so they are out of the way. Please remember we always recommend using the specific ‘Instinct Test’ patients when testing as these patients are not included in any analytic reports.
TV Mode
Make sure your TV monitors are hung up vertically and are displaying Instinct!
Go-Live Day
Morning Kick-Off: We will meet your team in the Zoom Go-Live Room at 9am (or other pre-designated time) to meet with key leadership at your hospital and kick off go-live briefly.
We recommend that front desk staff work to ensure all patients checked in that day are properly checked in, assigned the doctor, ward, service, and reason for the visit on the Status Board.
Additional Training Sessions
Just as we would when on-site, we are available to run training / Q&A sessions with your team on Zoom via a TV or Projector. This is best done in a conference room but can be done on the treatment floor as well! These are optional and we’ll arrange the schedule ahead of time.
Transferring Hospitalized Patients to Instinct: We’ll help your Go-Live Captain and Medical Lead make an organized plan to transfer patients to Instinct starting on the first morning of go-live.
Some Tips:
- Aim to have all patients transferred to Instinct before shift changes begin later in the day. That said, transitioning existing patients must be handled carefully with the goal to transfer patients at a comfortable pace for staff.
- Ideally, the doctor in charge of each case should be the person to input treatment orders in Instinct.
- Risk of duplication errors: If hospitalized, no patient should ever have a live Tx sheet and an old sheet at the same time for safety reasons. We recommend crossing out hours on the old sheet or removing it from the treatment area completely.
Instinct Team Availability via Chromebooks
We will be available on the Zoom Chromebook for video chatting and help on-demand between training sessions. Zoom can be used as a meeting room with the capability to do screen shares and chats.
We are available to remotely assist and answer questions as they arise. We can provide “on the spot” demos, answer questions, and hang with key teams via these devices as they start the transition.
Instinct support will also be available 24/7/365 for your team through the support chat. There is always someone available to jump in and assist with questions as needed here!
After Go-Live
Daily/Weekly Communication Updates: Many hospitals communicate tips, key learnings, and general workflow information daily or weekly starting on day one of go-live as the team adjusts to Instinct. One way to do this is to try to create a summary of the top 5 main points to cover in each update email.
Recap Meetings
Our customer support team can schedule a recap meeting (usually a day or two after go-live, but at your convenience) with your key leaders if necessary. This would allow us to troubleshoot any issues, discuss feedback on the process, and answer questions as they come up! We’re also available to help with any additional training that is needed.
Instinct Workflow Committee: Many hospitals create a workflow committee to include your Captain, Medical Lead, superuser, and designated admins to improve workflow after go-live. The Instinct committee can meet weekly/bi-monthly to review workflow processes and any other questions/issues that arise to help streamline the first few months after go-live.
And finally, we’re not going anywhere! Our team will be there for you for months (and years) as Instinct gets better and better with new features and advancements. You can always reach our team via chat or at support@instinct.vet which goes to our entire team at once. Let’s do this! Welcome to the Instinct Family!
💡 ProTip: Print and fill out this “Instinct is Coming” flyer to post in the hospital to generate excitement and easily access more information about Instinct and our training guides!