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David Henderson: Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode of Time Out For Anesthesia, I'm back with John Lutes. John, welcome back again. How are you doing? 

John Lutes: Doing good, doing good. Glad to be a guest here.

DH: Good. And again, we're gonna bring on a surprise guest, maybe not too much of a surprise if you watched the last episode, but today we wanna talk a little bit more about training, specifically. So, when our clients come on brand new, and they're starting to learn their way around, we're gonna talk about just some really important stuff you need to be aware of. But before we get started, I wanna welcome our surprise guest, Frank Dansby. Here we go.

JL: Alright, coming in. Frank. Hello, Frank, welcome back to the show.

DH: Hi Frank.

Frank Dansby: Hi guys.

JL: We've introduced you before, we know everything you do, we've talked about hardware report. So today's episode, we're gonna go through what happens afterwards. So, we've done everything on our charts here, we followed our project plan, we have integration, we have demographics, everything's flowing great, we have forms added. People have their iPads in their hands, and then we move on to training and... So, talk a little bit about what we do with training, when we bring back in Dr. Zavaleta for clinical training. Kinda the other trainings that we do to help software speech ahead, and that kind of stuff. And how that kinda helps out with the actual onboardings. I can share my screen again for that.

FD: Okay. So, are we talking like actual on-site onboarding or are we talking virtual training? 

JL: Well, I think that the virtual training, depending on the address of the site, we always like to train people on the phone first, make sure that there's no surprises. Again, we check that bar code, we make sure they're pulling up patients. So, if there's any people who we can get on there to learn how to do... Learn how to use the forms, before we get on site. I know that also you go through some of the dashboard trainings, that kind of stuff. Now, not a huge subject here, but I do think, just talk about the kind of things that we do there.

FD: Yeah, that's kinda where the rubber meets the road, right? 

JL: Right.

FD: One of the things we do like to do is training the trainer, right? So, we like to do a Zoom call or some sort of virtual meeting, where we actually get some of the main points of contact on site, some of the leaders in the Anesthesia Department, or the actual anesthesia directors. And train them on how to use our software, in such a way that they become leaders, as far as where support goes for their own anesthesia team. So we make sure that we fully train them on our iPad, in the app, and how the forms work, of course. But also, on how to answer questions, or how to escalate them to us. 'Cause essentially, what they're gonna be doing is, training their own team on how to use this software. So, that's something we really like to do. And even if we're not doing it virtually, if we're on-site, we still like to pick one or two or more people for that same purpose. Just so there's someone on every shift that, someone they know who to go to. "They" as in the anesthesia team on site.

JL: And I think that's a really good point, the train the trainer thing. It goes beyond actually the forms. Obviously, we have that clinical discussion with their clinical leaders there. But, you're also talking to administrators, so when you have to add a medication or we have to add another provider, because we have a new local coming in, I think one of the crucial things that you do is you go through and you train them on how to add some things to the dashboard. So the last thing you wanna do, is contact Graphium support and be like, "Hey, can you add this medication?" "Of course we can." Well, really... You really need to do it, [chuckle] you can do it faster, you're right there, right? 

FD: Right.

JL: You know what you need to do, and that's what we wanna make sure we're training how to do. So I don't know. Talk through some of the work... I guess... Okay, maybe I'm going too far ahead of myself, so... We do these phone trainings, we get as many people in the know as possible, and then we kind of pick that on-site, go live, date right? I guess maybe I can talk a little bit about that. So what we... Frank and I have done a number of onboardings together, of course. My main travel companion. We usually travel on a Monday, we're there on site early Tuesday morning. What... Usually, 6:00 AM, try to get there an hour before the first case starts. Sometimes we'll have more people on site. But what do we do? So, we usually put maybe one person into a waiting... No not a waiting room, the break room. And then we can have the other person follow people into cases if they need to. After the first day, I would say that the majority of people are pretty much up to date. And especially the form trainings, we're there with them on site. By noon, you're almost kind of... Almost done, really. Then we're really talking about the Admin training something like that.

FD: Yeah, that's exactly right. I think that the most boring onboardings are the best, I think that's kind of the way you look at it.

JL: Right.

FD: A good onboarding is a boring onboarding.

JL: Right.

FD: But typically, can we just talk about the life... A day in a life of an anesthesia provider while onboarding with Graphium Health. So, you would show up as a provider and be trained. And you'd be shown how to use the forms, essentially. And one of us, on site, can actually follow you into the OR and stand there, in case you have questions, look over your shoulder and show you how to use the software if you prefer that close of a contact. Or, just generally hang out in the break room waiting on you. We can do this any number of ways to make sure that you are comfortable with the software. One of the things that we like to suggest for all this is that, if you haven't tested it beforehand, which we always recommend, that while doing it live that day, that you are able to really look at it. And on that first day, sometimes people will use paper as they go through, it's not recommended, but you get to actually use the software in a live environment, with people that can come in and help you at a moment's notice. So that's a great thing.

FD: Another thing that can happen on the day of go live, essentially, is when you are actually utilizing the software, you can see that we use templates to make things a little bit easier. And you can see things that, compared to what you're used to with either your old software or your old paper forms, what you would like to see change on the Graphium form. And these are all good bits of feedback that we can receive from you. But, we like to basically, conglomerate all of that, or aggregate all of it over a two-week period. So, we basically start to invite you to start taking notes on these things and getting it to someone there on-site, your main point of contact. And then there might be medications you're missing that day, or rooms need to be listed, and we'll make sure that you're trained and know how to do that as well, or who to go to as far as you having to go to someone.

DH: And Frank, some of that's super important when... I remember back when, in the old days, when I would do onboardings, I remember at the beginning, and we're talking seven years ago now, we would talk and there would be feature requests, right? "Well, I wish it did this." "I wish it did that." "Can we do this?" "Can we do that?" And the answer to all of those questions is, "Well, it's software. Of course, we can do those things." And the lessons learned over time, one was, if we make a bunch of those changes right now, tomorrow you're gonna be using it and you're gonna want us to undo those changes. So that's one of the reasons I think that you have gotten into the habit of, "Alright, let's write all these things down, and now use the app for a while and see if some of these... Some of these things you actually... That you really think are valuable are things that you're not gonna need or things that would actually trip you up," because sometimes our app already does those things, or sometimes even our app makes those things unnecessary.

JL: Right. Yeah, I think you're talking about...

FD: Most of the number of times where we're asked to do something or there's a feature request, kinda like what you're talking about, and the app actually does that. And until you ask the question, you may not even know. I mean, it's fairly intuitive, but nevertheless, there could be something that's just glaring you right in the eyes and you just don't know.

JL: So what you guys were obviously talking about in this section down here is that post go live meeting, right? The two weeks after our actual go live and we leave boots off the ground, you know? Yeah, exactly. And it is funny, that day of, "Well, I really need this. I have to have this." "Do you really? Let's go through that." And then a couple weeks later, "Oh yeah, I don't need that, but I do need this on a template. Can you do that?" "Absolutely." Now that's... Use it for a little bit before you decide that this is a life-changing event. This has to change.

FD: Yeah, 'cause one of my favorite things about onboarding is obviously just getting to interact with everyone, and kinda see a different environment. I love that. But it's also the idea of it's fresh eyes on software that... My eyes are now old too, much like David's. [chuckle] I've been around long enough to where to me, this is what it does and I don't question it. So, sometimes we get some stellar feedback like, "Hey, if we could do this... "

JL: Right.

FD: And we're like, "You know what? That would work globally. We would do that for everybody." So that's why it's another good thing to encourage. But onboarding itself... Another thing that I tend to tell everyone, and I repeat this often, is about nine to ten forms, you do about nine to ten cases and...

JL: Yeah. You're a pro.

DH: And the software really does seem to get out of your way. It's much like paper with obviously some ways to make it both faster and more accurate. So yes, of course, you're using a device between you and the patient, but our goal is to make that as seamless as possible and to get it out of your way actually.

JL: Yeah.

FD: So that's 20 different things.

JL: Now, my favourite thing during onboardings is, when you already get there and it's always like, "Well, this person isn't gonna like this. They don't wanna do this," right? And almost without fail, that person becomes our biggest champion. In a couple weeks, "Woah, so and so actually really likes this." And I think that that's... The success of that is, of course, all the training, [chuckle] but also the design of the software, right? 'Cause it looks like a piece of paper, it's... If you're going...

FD: It does.

JL: Especially if you're going off of paper, it's gonna feel really similar to you. So yeah, I always love seeing those successes of, "That person's really not gonna like this," and they're the person that loves it the most.

FD: Yeah. I mean, I've seen the interface on some of the major hospital health systems and kinda how they do things and...

JL: Complicated.

FD: It is very complicated. While you're able to gather a lot of data from the back end and it's extremely useful to administration or management, even reporting, but as far as a user interface, it's like, well, you're sitting at a desk to do anesthesia with a computer, it doesn't make any sense.

JL: Right. Yeah.

FD: It's difficult at best. So, I really do like how our software works in that case. It's very intuitive.

JL: Yeah.

DH: So Frank, I have a follow-up question that I want you to answer. After onboarding, so once you've been on site, everybody's trained, everything like that, what's the number one most frequent call you get from a support perspective from users? 

FD: Well, there's always password reset. [laughter] That's always the... That's typical. We're in software, so password reset. Yes. I would say that, honestly, it just outweighs almost everything else. Then there's the one-offs, like John mentioned, "I need this added," such as medications, or locations, or a provider's name, or things like that, which we're gonna train people to do on site. But yes, we get contacts for that. And then the third thing is always, "This form needs to change in this way," which is kind of what we're talking about in that post go live meeting. Unfortunately, the number one thing is password resets, so all these...

JL: And just so we're clear, for everybody listening, a password reset, anybody can do just by clicking the little button on any of the opening screens, right? Yes.

FD: Yeah. So it's just, "Forgot password." But the interesting thing is, you need to know your username, which makes us kinda unique in that way. But your username, that's why when we do training, one of the things we're onboarding, one of the things without fail I mention is, "Make your username simple to remember, even if it's all lower case, or even if you use it somewhere else, 'cause it's a username, and you'll need that to reset your password. Passwords are super complicated as it should be, username doesn't need to be."

JL: Should we plug 1Password and password vaults here? This episode is sponsored by 1Password. [laughter]

FD: I don't know how you can get away from a conversation about passwords without you mentioning 1Password.

JL: I love 1Password. I love security of password vaults. I've become a big believer. So anybody listening to this, this is not sponsored by any of those people, unless they want to. [laughter] I think everybody should look into security vaults. It is the way to go. We at Graphium, of course, have to use it. We're very secure in that sense, but yes. But yeah, that...

FD: Whenever I'm out alone and I find people that use password managers, I'm always impressed with them. I always think that they're way ahead of the game.

JL: It's the way to go. Yeah.

FD: It really is.

JL: It's a little harder to start up...

FD: It comes with certain problems.

JL: But once you get it, I don't know what I would do without 'em, so, yes. Secure your password, in a secure place, that is just a general note. Okay, lastly, I guess we're all done with onboardings, we've moved on, we've handed you off to specifically support, which is usually gonna be the quarterback backed by Frank and his team and stuff like that. I think the one other thing we gotta bring on is app support. Bring your support questions in to, support@graphiumhealth.com. Not only... We're gonna have, probably each other's phone numbers, we're gonna be on a first name basis, and that's great. But, sending an email at support@graphiumhealth.com, does help out because it does actually go to a bunch of people that can put more eyes onto it. So, if you send it to my text, text it to my phone, and I happen to be on vacation and I can't see it or I'm doing something else, something like that, we all wanna make sure that you're serviced, as soon as possible. So, support@graphiumhealth.com, I think that's a big thing to point out here.

FD: You know what, that's one of the interesting things I've found, especially in business to business, and a seizure group or hospital to Graphium, a point to contact, it can't be stressed enough. I think I've mentioned that a couple of times. But I mean, this is a good case in point. John fields a lot of text messages from people that we've spoken to on onboarding, 'cause they have his name and number, like you just said. That is definitely one way for information to fall through the cracks. Not 'cause John's not responsive.

JL: And we even have a help page here now. We even have a help page here now, where if you wanna update your points of contact. You can go to the help page, we can send that to you, you can update it and we'll make sure that's updated so that, whenever there is crucial information that we need to push to you, we're always doing it with the right person, right? So, that's perfect.

FD: Absolutely.

JL: One more thing, one last thing.

FD: One last thing.

JL: We do have a portion on here for handing off to our PR and support or our marketing team so, David, surprise guest from the very beginning.

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JL: [0:15:05.5] ____ in here.

DH: Surprised to meet you, by the way.

JL: Surprise. [laughter] Well, it's fine, I think we say that I keep it on here as a kind of a reminder, and I do tell people, obviously, during our onboardings like, we might hand you off to our marketing team, every once in a while we like to do white papers, and if there's any kind of marketing quotes, of course, we always wanna engage you for that. And David handles a lot of all that stuff, he's our VP marketing after all. He and his team do all that fun stuff so, I don't know. I didn't mean to put you on the spot, David, is there anything that you wanna... Here is your floor.

DH: No, no, no. I think it's important. Obviously, there's obvious benefits to Graphium, before we can get in touch with, especially, satisfied users and get testimonials, and things like that to show other anesthesia practices that, "Hey, this actually is really good, your word is stronger than any marketing I could ever do." I think, we get to places where we want that to be mutually beneficial. Where large anesthesia practice, who are part of recruiting or who are trying to win contracts and things like that. We wanna attach you to the marketing efforts that we have so that we can demonstrate, "Look, here's, for instance, a practice who is concerned with security and with growth, and with providing, especially, with providing a safer and better patient experience, and things like that." Those are the kinds of things that we try to incorporate in our brand, and if we can associate those things with your practice, this is a really good juncture to kinda start working together on those things.

JL: And imagine how helpful it would have been beforehand, if you had seen testimonials about Graphium Health that were made... Helped you kinda make that decision, right? 

DH: Right, yeah.

JL: It helps people right? Everyone wants to know where that value add is so, it means a lot coming from other people. We always appreciate those marketing testimonials, so.

DH: For sure.

JL: Cool, alright, well, I think that covers it, really. That does get us to the end of the onboarding stuff so, this would be the last video in the series, I guess, I'll close in. I hope everybody enjoyed this, please get a hold of us if you have any questions, of course, and we look forward to working with you.

DH: Thanks again, Frank, we'll talk to you guys soon.

JL: Bye, Frank.

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