Practices are generally urged to provide their physicians with training following EHR implementation, but a new survey suggests that many medical offices may be skipping this important step.

AmericanEHR Partners, a health IT resource group, found in a survey of more than 2,300 physicians that many receive inadequate training after their practice implements an EHR system. This can lead to low levels of overall satisfaction with the technology.

The survey showed that 49 percent of respondents received three or fewer days of training on new technology systems. More training was linked to higher satisfaction, greater ease of use and better understanding of how to use the technology to achieve meaningful use.

"We hope the insights gathered from this report will lead to better strategies for initial EHR training and better usability for clinical working on meaningful use requirements," said Michael Barr, the vice president of medical practice, professionalism and quality at the American College of Physicians, commenting on the study.

Medical practices can get busy, making it hard to find the time to adequately train staff. But there are many resources available to make the process simpler. EHR vendors in particular offer training to new clients in order to help smooth the transition.