KLAS Arch Collaborative Learning Summit 2024

Arch Collaborative Awards

To recognize and celebrate the hard work of healthcare organizations who have significantly enhanced their clinicians’ EHR experiences, KLAS presented the first-ever Arch Collaborative EHR Experience awards—the Pinnacle Award and the Breakthrough Recognition. Organizations who received these awards demonstrate that achieving EHR success and clinician satisfaction is possible.

The 2024 awards were given to healthcare organizations who have measured with the Arch Collaborative at any time since 2017. In the future, organizations will only qualify for a Pinnacle Award or Breakthrough Recognition if they measure with the Arch Collaborative within the given year. See here for a full list of the 2024 winners.

† The Arch Collaborative measures satisfaction with the EHR via the Net EHR Experience Score (NEES). Each individual clinician’s responses to the Arch Collaborative EHR Experience Survey regarding core factors such as the EHR’s efficiency, functionality, impact on care, and so on are aggregated into an overall NEES, which represents a snapshot of the clinician’s overall satisfaction with the EHR environment at their organization. A NEES can range from -100 (all negative feedback) to 100 (all positive feedback).

Welcome: Arch Collaborative Growth & a Look into the Future

Presenters

Summary

Healthcare organizations are proving that clinician EHR satisfaction is achievable:
The Arch Collaborative has always affirmed that high clinician EHR satisfaction is possible, and participating organizations across the world—from the US to Canada to the Middle East—are proving that clinicians can have positive EHR interactions. Moreover, healthcare organizations are not alone in their efforts; many HIT vendors and services firms have collaborated with client organizations to improve the clinician EHR experience.

The Arch Collaborative is continually enhancing resources for organizations: 
One recent development is the Executive Scorecard, which provides a snapshot of how well an organization supports their clinicians’ EHR use as well as the financial risk if the organization doesn’t improve the EHR experience. KLAS has also published Success Pathways for ongoing EHR education and EHR personalization tools that detail next steps for organizations; more Success Pathways will be released in the future. Other upcoming offerings from the Collaborative include:

• Updated format for case studies (including a promotional toolkit for involved organizations)
• Support in setting goals for EHR improvement
• Measurement of third-party technologies’ impact on clinician experience
• Measurement of ROI
• Prediction of nurse/physician turnover and financial risk
• Improved training quality benchmark
• Improved Learning Center user experience

Improving the EHR Experience with Data

Presenter

Summary

Make changes based on Arch Collaborative data:
Data from the Arch Collaborative’s measurement of Ozarks Healthcare laid a foundation for the organization, enabling them to improve their EHR implementation and the physician EHR experience through evidence-based best practices. Acting on user feedback was pivotal in the organization’s journey toward better EHR practices.

Push through challenges:
In their efforts to improve the EHR experience, Ozarks Healthcare faced numerous challenges, including limited resources and hesitance from senior leadership. Dr. Frase encouraged participation in the Arch Collaborative and used the Collaborative’s Provider Guidebook to enhance EHR implementation and training. Clinician feedback from Arch Collaborative surveys showed improved EHR satisfaction, and Dr. Frase used this data to validate her IT team’s efforts and gain support from senior leadership and vendors.

Learn from all organization types:
Ozarks Healthcare is a smaller health system, but by connecting with and learning from Arch Collaborative members of all sizes, Ozarks was able to implement strategies that had far-reaching benefits.

Enhancing Interoperability to Elevate the Clinician Experience

Moderator

Panelists

Summary

Healthcare organizations still face challenges with achieving true interoperability:
While data sharing has progressed, interoperability continues to be a struggle, especially for smaller community hospitals or among hospitals that don’t share a common EHR. Additionally, when data is shared, it is often outside of the clinician workflow. External data needs to be presented in the EHR in an actionable, digestible format that enables clinicians to drive improved patient care.

EHR vendors should play a role in improving interoperability:
True interoperability comes at a high cost to healthcare organizations, who must work to identify and connect with core sharing partners. According to the panelists, this burden could be lightened if EHR vendors helped facilitate easier communication across platforms and implemented common documentation standards. Vendors should listen to clinicians’ needs and establish cross-vendor committees to ensure data is useful and relevant to clinicians at the point of care.

Improved interoperability will revolutionize healthcare:
With the rise of AI and machine learning, and with increasing partnerships between EHR vendors and other entities (e.g., Google) to better summarize integrated data, the utility of shared data will continue to improve. This improvement will reduce waste by minimizing duplicate tests and enhance patient outcomes and experiences.

Leveraging Ambient Speech Technology to Improve Provider Well-Being & the Patient Experience

Moderator

Panelists

Summary

Ambient speech technology leads to high physician and patient satisfaction:
Physicians appreciate the technology’s ease of use and how it lessens the documentation burden; in particular, ambient speech technology decreases the amount of time physicians document at home because they can complete their notes in real time. Patients appreciate the improved connection with their physicians during consultations. Ambient speech technology isn’t a cure-all, but when used in conjunction with other documentation best practices, it can reduce physicians’ cognitive burden.

Ambient speech technology requires proper education:
Informaticists need to be trained to support the tools, and end users need to be trained on the workflows and the technology’s limitations.

Improved integration and standardization are needed:
Not all ambient speech tools can integrate with EHRs, requiring physicians to go to an external site to access notes. Improved integration is needed so that physicians can access notes inside the EHR and quickly glean relevant insights. Additionally, without proper note standardization, incorrect formatting can occur. Healthcare organizations and vendors need to partner together to continually enhance the accuracy of ambient speech tools.

Summit Sessions

Joy in Medicine: Organizational Well-Being as a Leadership Imperative

American Medical Association (AMA)

The AMA presented on its efforts to improve organizational well-being. The AMA collaborates with more than 150 healthcare systems committed to decreasing burnout for physicians and care team members as well as helping staff regain joy, purpose, and meaning in the work of delivering patient care.

Keeping Patients Engaged and Clinicians Empowered—Maximizing Portal Value while Minimizing Burnout

Confluence Health

Providers can often feel overwhelmed by the volume of MyChart messages from patients. Confluence Health was struggling to balance increasing patient engagement through MyChart while avoiding provider burnout from constant advice requests. In this webinar, Confluence shared their journey to “bend the curve” on patient message volume without compromising care quality or access. Despite steadily increasing their MyChart user base, Confluence has been able to successfully flatten message growth through a multi-pronged approach.

How to Burn Down Provider Burnout

Piedmont Healthcare

Through many programs, EHR optimizations, and new technologies, Piedmont Healthcare has improved their scores for Arch Collaborative metrics related to provider burnout and likelihood to leave. This session shared these strategies as well as next steps for Piedmont related to AI to keep the momentum going with improving the lives of providers.

Empowering Healing Hands: Physician Wellness Program

Yuma Regional Medical Center

This session covered the growth and structure of a medical group and the role of a chief wellness officer. Additionally, it highlighted Yuma Regional Medical Center’s physician builder program, well-being index, self-assessment, support services, and DYAD leadership model.

Optimizing Your Time & Driving Documentation Excellence with Collaborative Solutions

Intermountain Health & Solventum

Intermountain and Solventum leaders discussed their journey to clinical documentation excellence by utilizing AI supported by a robust physician advisor organization. This session examined how the EHR’s integrated technology extends into patient care by identifying opportunities to transition patients to the right level of care at the right time.

Empowering Nurse Voices & Redesigning EHR Workflows for Enhanced Efficiency

Mercy Health

This presentation focused on harnessing nurses’ insights and expertise to improve workflow design. By involving nurses in the decision-making process, organizations can create more efficient systems that enhance both patient care and operational effectiveness. Additionally, this presentation demonstrated the value of combining clinical evidence with nurse-led insights to drive workflow improvements.

Increase EHR Satisfaction & Efficiency through Personalization Training

UCSF Health

Education is one of the pillars of success for clinician EHR satisfaction. In 2022, UCSF Health’s advanced practice providers (APPs) ranked in the seventh percentile of Epic organizations for ongoing training sufficiency and the fifth percentile for adequate workflow training. The organization’s APPs underutilized personalized templates, order lists, and shortcuts in the care setting, with 44% needing to perform after-hours EHR work. Guided by insights from their Arch Collaborative results, the organization’s informatics team developed a provider-led ongoing training program that improved workflows through EHR personalization. Using a hybrid model of asynchronous training tailored to individual participants through baseline EHR performance data and small group learning integration, UCSF Health has seen measured improvements in Epic proficiency, after-hours work time, and overall EHR experience scores.

UW Health & Virtual Scribes, Then & Now

UW Health & IKS Health

In this presentation, UW Health and IKS Health reviewed current UW Health metrics and surveys and discussed the future state and technology advancements for virtual scribes.

Nursing Achievements through Innovative E-Learning, Data Utilization & Focused Rounding

CommonSpirit Health

This presentation dove into innovative EHR learning methods employed by CommonSpirit Health—the largest nonprofit healthcare system in the US—to enhance nurse satisfaction and adoption. By aligning with Arch Collaborative data insights, the organization fostered efficient processes and ensured end-user needs were met. The presentation also explored methods for validating competencies and emphasized continual improvement and user-centric approaches.

Fast Lane to Efficiency: How Gundersen’s Virtual Training Strategy Accelerated Onboarding & Educator Effectiveness

Gundersen Health System & uPerform

Faced with rapid growth, a dispersed workforce, and limited training staff, Gundersen Health System needed to scale their Epic training and ongoing support. They realized the old classroom approach wasn’t enough and chose a digital approach. In this session, Gundersen and uPerform discussed their self-directed virtual training strategy that accelerates onboarding and delivers a more effective ongoing training experience for caregivers.

Onboarding & Continuing Education for the Provider

Inova Health System

Inova Health System has developed a highly effective, multistep onboarding process that incorporates virtual training modalities and at-the-elbow support to ensure new providers are seamlessly integrated into the healthcare team. This structured approach facilitates a smooth transition and empowers providers with the needed tools and knowledge to excel in their roles from day one. In 2024, Inova has implemented an advanced EHR training program, supported by an incentive structure, to provide ongoing EHR education and cultivate a community of SmartUsers. Through these virtual training programs, Inova is enhancing both provider engagement and patient care.

Ochsner’s Training Transformation with Amplifire for Onboarding, Go-Lives & Beyond

Ochsner Health & Amplifire

This webinar shared how Ochsner Health moved to web-based onboarding and ongoing training in the midst of a large implementation by leveraging Amplifire’s adaptive learning platform. The presentation also discussed how the healthcare organization dispelled the perception of adaptive learning as a test rather than a learning platform and how they are leveraging Amplifire for ongoing learning needs.

Nursing Informatics: How to Implement a Successful Training Program

UCI Health

In this webinar, UCI Health shared how they have used Arch Collaborative insights to improve their clinical end users’ experience.

EMR Satisfaction: A Holistic Partnering Model

Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta

Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta’s 2023 Arch Collaborative measurement showed a Net EHR Experience Score in the 95th percentile—a significant increase from their 2019 measurement in the 60th percentile. In this session, the organization shared how they achieved higher satisfaction through a holistic partnering model. Key strategies include clarifying ownership, understanding satisfaction, evaluating quality, integrating learning, and planning collaboratively.

Go to the Head of the KLAS: How a Small Children’s Hospital’s EHR Governance Program Helps Set the Bar for EHR Satisfaction

Children’s Nebraska

In 2023, Children’s Nebraska measured with the Arch Collaborative for the third time, achieving a Net EHR Experience Score in the 90th percentile or higher across all clinical roles when compared to all health systems, all health systems that use Epic, and all pediatric health systems in the Arch Collaborative. The organization shared the governance strategies and philosophies that led to their end users’ high satisfaction, focusing specifically on agile decision-making, use of data to identify problem areas, and strategic use of the phrase “no, but . . .”

Enhancing Provider EHR Satisfaction: A CEO’s Perspective

Henry County Hospital

In 2019, Henry County Hospital went through a total EHR conversion. By utilizing change management theories and focusing on provider needs, the EHR implementation and optimization have resulted in high provider satisfaction with both the EHR and the organization’s IT department. The presentation reviewed the organization’s processes for EHR selection, orientation, and optimization as well as future steps to ensure continued satisfaction.

Clinical Optimization & Workflow Enhancement: The Value of Gemba Rounding During an Informatics Program Restructuring

UCI Health & Chartis

Chartis helped restructure the clinical informatics program and enhance clinical optimization at UCI Health by introducing Gemba rounds for workflow efficiency, aiding with orthopedic workflows and facilitating the onboarding of a new CMIO. This session examined how these organizations’ collaborative efforts resulted in a substantially improved EHR experience score and improved the alignment between IT and end users.

Improving EHR Upgrades

KLAS Research

EHR upgrades introduce new functionalities, improve technology, and incorporate new regulatory requirements. However, clinicians often struggle to adequately understand and leverage EHR upgrades. This session shared best practices to maximize the clinician upgrade experience and prevent frustration.

Using the Arch Collaborative to Achieve Your Goals

KLAS Research

This session summarized findings from recent Arch Collaborative reports, including Empowering Nurses to Focus on Patient Care, Easy Lifts for Quickly Improving EHR Satisfaction, Understanding & Addressing Trends in Physician & Nurse Burnout, and Self-Directed eLearning.

Nursing Guidebook 2024: EHR Best Practices for Nurses

KLAS Research

The 2024 Nursing Guidebook is a great resource for learning data-backed best practices directly from the voices of nurses. This session shared some of those best practices that can improve the nurse EHR experience.

Patient Voice Collaborative: Recent KLAS Insights from the Patient Perspective

KLAS Research

At the heart of EHR improvement strategies is a desire to improve the quality of patient care. This session examined patients’ needs and expectations regarding technology and how it impacts their loyalty to healthcare organizations.

Summit Attendees

Healthcare Organizations

Vendors/Services Firms

Healthcare Associations

What Is the KLAS Arch Collaborative?

The Arch Collaborative is a group of healthcare organizations committed to improving the EHR experience through standardized surveys and benchmarking. To date, over 300 healthcare organizations have surveyed their end users and over 500,000 clinicians have responded. Reports such as this one seek to synthesize the feedback from these clinicians into actionable insights that organizations can use to revolutionize patient care by unlocking the potential of the EHR.