KLAS Arch Collaborative Physician Guidebook 2025

While burnout levels have dropped since 2022, a third of physicians still report symptoms of burnout. Physicians who are satisfied with the EHR report lower rates of burnout and an intention to leave their organization. When organizations implement the best practices later in this guidebook, they can improve both physician wellness and EHR satisfaction.

The EHR House of Success Is a Critical Framework for Improving Physician Experience

While there are many barriers to physician EHR satisfaction, Arch Collaborative data consistently shows that focusing on the elements of the EHR House of Success improves EHR satisfaction. Instead of being hindered by the framework, physicians can use it as an effective tool to improve patient care.

Note: Click the link to jump to the following sections; EHR education, EHR governance, and EHR personalization.

Easier lifts

Speed

• Comply with your EHR vendor’s infrastructure recommendations.

Reliability

• Schedule regular downtime during the times of least impact; regularly communicate about scheduled downtime. Develop and implement downtime protocols to ensure patient safety and care continuity during both scheduled and unexpected events. Test upgrades offline to prevent live disruptions.

Heavier lifts

Speed

• Work with technical team and EHR vendor to set SLAs for EHR reliability, speed, and login processes across care settings; communicate these SLAs with senior leadership and end users.
• Use a ticketing system and proactively round with physicians (alongside your technical team) to monitor EHR reliability, speed, and other issues across care settings.

Reliability

• Forecast hardware-replacement costs by maintaining an inventory, setting a three- or five-year refresh cycle, and budgeting for annual equipment replacements.
• When issues occur, conduct a root-cause analysis (examining ticket patterns and process-related factors; promptly inform clinicians of service impacts and restoration timelines.
• Build in redundancy and automatic failovers.

Easier lifts

• Determine the best delivery method, timing, and duration of training based on content and learner needs.
• Identify tools to track individual journeys, including participation, gaps, and proficiency levels.
• When communicating about training, emphasize the importance of EHR mastery for patient care/safety, documentation efficiency, and burnout reduction, and include a respected leader to reinforce its value. Clearly communicate how physicians can access tip sheets, videos, training materials, etc.
• Ensure peer trainers are educated on needed physician workflows.
• Ensure onboarding EHR content is vetted by physicians who are currently using the EHR in relevant specialties.
• Use assessments and test-out options to tailor onboarding EHR education for physicians’ experience levels.
• Survey new hires 2–3 weeks post-onboarding on the effectiveness, strengths, and gaps of the EHR education program; specifically ask what workflows they have encountered in patient care they felt unprepared for.
• Actively iterate courses and content based on clinician survey results, help desk tickets, support requests, and EHR data.

Heavier lifts

• Build your onboarding EHR curriculum around optimal organizational, role, and specialty workflows; incorporate hands-on, patient-centered exercises to create meaningful, context-based learning.
• Remove participation barriers by designing a clear, accessible path for clinicians to engage in onboarding EHR education courses in the correct sequence and within the appropriate time frame.
• Establish a formal mentorship program for all departments between new hires and experienced physicians; set clear expectations to ensure mentors are effective teachers and strong EHR users.
• Schedule regular check-in meetings with new hires at key intervals (e.g., 30, 60, and 90 days post-hire); use pre-meeting surveys to identify training needs and tailor the sessions to support individuals’ learning and EHR optimization.

Easier lifts

• Leverage educational resources from your EHR vendor.
• Ensure physicians know how to find support (e.g., online training resources, training staff).
• Measure the effectiveness of your education program using a physician survey (such as KLAS’ Education Quality Benchmark).
• Review help-desk tickets and support requests to identify training opportunities and/or curriculum gaps.
• Use EHR efficiency data and end-user surveys as needed to identify and reach out to physicians who need additional training. Adjust content based on results.
• Provide at least 1–2 hours of ongoing training for physicians.

Heavier lifts

• Build a curriculum that includes workflow- and specialty-specific content to ensure relevance and effectiveness.
• Create a path for physicians to enroll in education courses in the correct order and time frame.
• Through end-user surveys and EHR data, measure effectiveness, strengths, and gaps; communicate improvements (e.g., reduced after-hours documentation, faster charting, increased patient face time) with clinicians to promote ongoing participation.
• Provide education when making EHR upgrades.
• Use EHR liaisons as a resource to reinforce EHR best practices.
• With EHR metrics and surveys in hand, round with clinicians to understand gaps and wins from ongoing education courses; be prepared to offer tips to clinicians.
• Determine the best delivery method, timing, and duration of training based on content and learner needs. Determine if it should be incorporated with a wellness program. Provide continued medical education credit.
• Identify tools to track individual journeys for EHR education, including participation, gaps, and proficiency levels.
• Incentivize engagement through high-value options, such as off-site training, protected time for training, CME credits, and leadership development paths.

Easier lifts

• Create a diverse clinician group to work with the IT team on EHR-related decisions. Involve physicians who have frontline workflow expertise in all steps, including decision-making, implementation, and training. Make sure that individuals on governance committees are allotted time to participate.
• Utilize many methods to communicate EHR changes; adapt messages based on the content, audience, and degree of change.
• Send communication through a trusted source (e.g., leader, department head, educator, EHR liaison) as well as through the IT team; be consistent with the delivery method and format of communications.
• Close the communication loop about requests and projects; communicate why changes are (or are not) occurring.

Heavier lifts

• Align decision-makers on strategic plans, including guiding principles, policies, and standardized processes that will guide consistent decisions across the organization.
• IT teams must proactively communicate EHR changes to physicians.
• Use rounding to interact frequently with physicians.
• For obvious EHR needs, create a fast-track process for requests to bypass the review process.
• Follow an established process for submitting, reviewing, delivering, and communicating about EHR requests.

EHR Personalization: Increasing Efficiency by Meeting Individual User Needs

Personalization allows healthcare organizations to meet the needs of individual end users without making significant changes to the EHR. Physicians want to make their EHR their own by aligning capabilities to meet their specific workflows.

Easier lifts

• Audit physician workflows and introduce personalizations that will best meet their needs as soon as possible.
• Assess available EHR vendor and third-party firms who can provide personalization courses/labs.
• Embed personalization content into both initial and ongoing training, with regular follow-ups to optimize workflows.
• Continuously monitor EHR usage data to identify EHR efficiency opportunities.
• Streamline high-click workflows to reduce burden and improve user satisfaction.

Heavier lifts

• Encourage physicians to implement personalization tools they have successfully used before, following your EHR policies/governance.
• Survey clinicians to assess perceived benefits and satisfaction with personalization tools. Determine which tools offer the greatest impact by specialty or focus area.
• Calculate and share time and cost savings from reduced clicks to build buy-in and maintain engagement.

Easier lifts

• Equip lower-level managers to explain reasons for decisions and how they align with the organization’s mission.
• Maintain a positive organizational culture by acknowledging accomplishments and encouraging physician participation in EHR changes.
• Embed wellness programs into education and informatics efforts.
• Implement team events throughout the year both at and outside of work to build camaraderie.
• Eliminate invasive or stigmatizing language in surveys/assessments and communication so that physicians feel empowered to seek mental health care when required.

Heavier lifts

• Create a safe, supportive environment that encourages dialogue about staff well-being.
• Thoughtfully use AI automation; track outcomes to assess impact on physician burnout.
• Give physicians control over aspects of their workload to allow more focus on patient care.
• Ensure appropriate staffing levels to support physician flexibility and autonomy.
• Appoint a chief wellness officer (CWO); allocate dedicated staff and budget to wellness efforts.
• Offer comprehensive support resources (e.g., mental health, financial planning, and healthcare education services) to help physicians manage personal and professional challenges.
• Regularly measure burnout symptoms to identify and address concerns.