Like any hospital-wide change, implementing new software in your veterinary practice can be a recipe for stress—for you and your team.

Especially in a busy environment like an elite veterinary center, change often feels like an unwelcome disruption. If the benefit of the change isn’t immediately clear to your team, they might respond with skepticism. Or worse, complete resistance.

Here at Instinct, we’re often asked how our hospitals make the software transition a success. After our first 200 successful Instinct go-lives, we’ve learned that the most successful hospitals all have one thing in common: they empower individual on-the-floor leaders on the team to manage the transition.

We call these leaders superusers. 🦸🏻

🏋🏽‍♀️ What is a superuser?

If you’ve spent any time researching new software tools, you’ve probably heard some version of this phrase before. Early adopters, advocates, champions, superusers—whatever you call them, they all have the same role: help your team successfully transition to (and actually use) the new software you’ve spent months researching.

The ideal superuser is an enthusiastic team member who undergoes additional training in order to best understand how the software works and how your practice can use it effectively. They then become an in-house expert leading the charge from day one and onward.

Making the case for superusers

Before my role at Instinct, I was a veterinary nurse at a specialty practice.

When my practice joined Instinct, I immediately fell in love with the software’s ability to supercharge our workflows and improve patient care. And when the hospital group announced they’d be rolling Instinct out to more hospitals, I jumped at the chance to be a superuser.  

As a superuser for years, I had the training—and enthusiasm—to help our hospital teams understand what Instinct could do for them. I shared pro tips for using keyboard shortcuts, taught team members how to customize Instinct to their workflows, showed them how to move patients from board to board, and so much more.

The best part was watching that “aha moment” happen for someone who had previously been resistant to the change. There was always that one feature that really made the value of the software click for them.

That’s the benefit of a superuser in a nutshell. We become experts on the software before it even goes live in the hospital, so we are positioned to help our team get the most out of it.

Let’s look at a few more questions we get asked a lot by hospitals transitioning to Instinct.

🤸🏿 What does a superuser do?

These team members become familiar with the software and get additional training in advance so they can lead your team during implementation. They also answer workflow questions from team members and help promote a smooth transition during and after launch.

🤹🏼 How many superusers should my hospital have?

Depending on the size of the hospital, you should at least have one person who has the time and space to be a superuser. Optimally though, we typically recommend having 1 superuser assigned per shift or per service—especially for evening/overnight shifts. Ideally, you’ll select a key member from each department throughout the hospital: a front desk representative, a veterinary nurse, a doctor, and someone in a management position.

Whoever you choose will become a great in-house resource for the hospital and for future team members who need to learn the software.

👯 How do I choose superusers?

When choosing your superusers, look for team members who are:

• Comfortable with technology
• Enthusiastic about the benefits of the software
• Knowledgeable about the hospital’s workflows and needs
• Positive, consistent communicators
• Passionate advocates for the team

Every hospital is different, but you might find that the people who fit these criteria best are the ones who were leading the charge to get the software in the first place.

👨‍🎓 What do superusers learn before go-live?

Before go-live, we teach Instinct superusers a number of key functions in the software.

Here’s a snapshot of some of the things superusers get comfortable with before go-live:

• How to explain the connection between Instinct and other practice software
• How patients are checked into Instinct
• Using the Filters and the importance of assigning Doctor, Ward, and Service for all patients
• Using the ‘Ready to Go’ and ‘Ready to Admit’ icons and Triage Tags
• Moving patients from board to board
• Ordering medications and using our drug calculator and Plumb’s features
• Ordering IV fluids, CRIs, and IVF Additives
• Using the ‘Assign to me’ icon
• Where to get more help
• And more!

Thanks to Instinct’s library of helpful resources, filling any gaps in your knowledge after your training sessions is a breeze. You'll gain access to the Careville website, where you can find how-tos on almost any question, and Pick the Brain, where our team offers eye-opening ideas on how to make everyday life in practice even better.

So whether you’re onboarding your team to Instinct or to an entirely different veterinary practice software, we highly recommend carefully selecting a team of superusers to lead the charge.

Enthusiasm can be infectious. If you have positive team members who clearly see the value of the software you’ve selected, they’ll be able to hurdle common barriers to adoption for  the rest of your team. 😊