Improving Training and Onboarding with Patagonia Health Academy

Background

The Delaware Division of Public Health (DPH) operates across three counties, supporting a network of clinics that serve patients who often lack access to primary care.  As a statewide system with approximately 7,000 employees, and about 140 users, the organization operates in a complex, high-demand environment.

Before adopting Patagonia Health Academy, the team relied on static webinar content or docs for ongoing system training. They needed a better way to train and onboard new staff effectively.

Solution

To make training more accessible and ease the burden of onboarding, the Delaware Division of Public Health implemented Patagonia Health Academy, a role-based EHR learning platform designed to support both new and existing staff.

Patagonia Health Academy provides structured learning paths tailored to each user’s role, along with interactive content that encourages ongoing engagement with the EHR. This approach shifted onboarding and continued learning toward a more flexible, on-demand experience, enabling staff to quickly search for and revisit the information they need.

This change directly addressed a key challenge for the organization: ensuring staff could access relevant guidance when they needed it. As a result, both new hires and experienced team members felt more confident navigating the system.

“Since [Patagonia Health Academy] came out, a lot of our new staff, as well as existing staff, have been able to find out exactly what they needed,” says Nomi Sabahat, Management Analyst III at the Delaware Division of Public Health.

Adoption was strong across the organization, reflecting the platform's alignment with staff needs. Sabahat adds, “I love it. All of my staff only have good things to say about it.”

From the implementation perspective, the collaboration between teams played a key role in early success. Jennifer Hassa, Instructional Designer at Patagonia Health, says, “Working with the Delaware Division of Public Health was a standout experience. Their openness to learning, willingness to ask thoughtful questions, and immediate effort to involve their staff made the Academy rollout impactful from day one.”

Process

Role-Based Onboarding

The team integrated Patagonia Health Academy directly into onboarding workflows by assigning training based on user roles, including RNs, providers, and management analysts.

Delaware Division of Public Health further formalized this approach by building structured learning paths for each role.

Encouraging Self-Service Learning

The Academy empowered staff to find answers independently rather than relying on peers or supervisors.

“Everyone’s usually pretty busy,” explains Sabahat. ”[Now staff can] find out exactly what they need, instead of asking their peers or supervisors.”

This shift supported a more scalable and sustainable training model.

Ongoing Optimization and Reporting

Management began incorporating reporting features to track staff engagement and completion, with plans to utilize dynamic leaderboards in the future.

Benefits

Faster, More Effective Onboarding

The Academy significantly improved the onboarding experience by providing structured, role-specific training resources. “It’s been helping in terms of onboarding people [and] refreshers for existing staff,” says Sabahat.

Improved Usability and Staff Confidence

Staff found the platform intuitive and easy to navigate, contributing to strong adoption.

“Our staff finds it very easy to navigate. I have not heard any complaints,” shares Sabahat.

Scalable Training Across Multiple Locations

With distributed teams, the Academy provided a consistent training experience across a large health department with many clinics. Leaderboards and reporting allow for localized support and oversight from location management.

This commitment to consistency has been a defining strength of the rollout. As Hassa explains, “Their decision to implement Academy for both onboarding and ongoing staff refreshers shows a strong commitment to consistency and continuous learning, ensuring their team stays confident, informed, and aligned over time.”

Looking Ahead

Patagonia Health Academy remains a foundational tool for supporting a large and distributed workforce. By embedding role-based learning into everyday workflows, the Delaware Division of Public Health is improving staff learning and engagement.

“Overall… I just feel like [Patagonia Health Academy] has been very beneficial,” says Sahabat.

With Patagonia Health Academy, Delaware is moving toward a more scalable, responsive training model that not only supports staff efficiency but also reinforces their ability to deliver timely, high-quality care to the communities they serve.

Download the PDF version here: Improving Training and Onboarding with Patagonia Health Academy