KLAS Arch Collaborative Success Pathway—Superusers

Create Clarity & Structure for a Sustainable Superuser Program

Establish the foundation for your superuser program by reviewing self-examination questions (see below) and clearly defining the superuser role and scope.

Outline superuser responsibilities, which can include engaging end users in the EHR experience, providing peer support, testing or reviewing workflows and features before go-live, facilitating communication, supporting EHR upgrade success, promoting technology and tool adoption, rounding, participating in EHR governance committees and councils, providing peer education, and escalating issues.

Determine how often superusers will provide support in person versus virtually, balancing time for both formats across locations and recognizing that immediate on-site access to superusers is more powerful. Verify that superusers can effectively communicate and provide support in both environments.

Ensure frontline users know who supports them and how to contact their superuser.

Establish superusers as frontline support for workflow questions and basic issue resolution, not as a replacement for formal IT channels with defined escalation paths.

Define clear pathways for when and how superusers escalate issues to IT or centralized support teams.

Define superusers’ expected time commitment (e.g., once per week for two hours, once per month for four hours), the length of their commitment (e.g., six months, one year, two years), their scope of influence (e.g., unit, department, specialty), and their reporting accountability (e.g., centralized, individual manager, IT).

Avoid overreliance on a small subset of individuals as superusers to prevent burnout, avoid gaps in coverage, and ensure consistent opportunities for interested individuals.

Brand your superuser program.

Allocate protected, paid time for superuser responsibilities, such as rounding, meetings, testing, and education. Build this time into schedules to reinforce the value of the role and ensure sustainability.

Create superuser candidate selection guidelines based on skill set, engagement, EHR interest, workflow expertise, demonstrated willingness to assist peers, peer trust, and ability to act as liaisons, advisors, and advocates for frontline clinical users with the EHR governance framework.

Create a formal application and review process for candidates who are interested in becoming a superuser.

Use a combination of self-identification, leadership input, peer recommendations, and EHR metrics (e.g., breadth of tool use, advanced feature adoption) to ensure superuser candidates are motivated and credible. Ensure superuser candidates have an aptitude for explaining complex concepts to peers, troubleshooting problems, and finding solutions.

Assign superusers by unit, clinic, or service line so that every clinical area has access to superuser support.

Ensure superusers will be comfortable liaising with technical teams, leadership, and frontline EHR users.

Prepare Superusers to Deliver Consistent, High-Impact Peer Support

Train and empower superusers by equipping them with deeper knowledge, skills, and context to support peers effectively.

Require superusers to participate in advanced EHR education focused on role-specific workflows, personalization tools and widgets, and common pain points.

Schedule superuser training well in advance of support assignments so superusers are fully prepared to support frontline users effectively.

Superuser training should include helpful tactics to approach frontline EHR users without demeaning their current EHR expertise.

Ensure superusers have the necessary tools (e.g., KLAS Arch Collaborative EHR Experience Survey, EHR dashboard access and reports) and training to understand EHR usage and satisfaction.

Ensure superusers understand both system capabilities and organizational standards. Ensure superusers understand how the EHR supports the organization’s strategic plan.

Give superusers access to EHR practice environments to test changes and upgrades before go-live.

Prepare superusers to effectively provide at-the-elbow coaching and to reinforce standard, optimized workflows.

Use superusers to validate and refine training content to ensure relevance and clarity.

Facilitate superuser participation in governance and shared ownership work groups, committees, and councils, particularly where frontline input is needed (e.g., assessing the impact of EHR upgrades and changes, encouraging the adoption of new tools, raising awareness of frontline users’ EHR challenges).

Clarify how superuser feedback will inform decisions and how outcomes will be communicated to peers.

Support superuser communication responsibilities by creating standardized materials for superusers to leverage while communicating upcoming changes, upgrades, and best practices to peers.

Establish structured feedback loops for superusers to relay feedback and concerns from frontline users to leadership.

Ensure superusers are visible to end users.

Ensure clinicians can quickly identify who their superuser is through clear visual cues (e.g., lanyards, badges, jackets), internal directories, and unit signage.

Communicate the purpose of superusers and how clinicians should engage their superuser for support.

Integrate Superusers into Daily Operations, Upgrades & Optimization Efforts

Engage superusers early during changes and upgrades to evaluate the impact, test workflows, validate changes, and represent the clinical voice before go-live.

Review the KLAS Arch Collaborative Success Pathway on EHR Changes & Upgrades.

Educate superusers on effective change management strategies. Use KLAS’ Change Management Executive Forum 2024 report for framework, structure, and guidance principles.

Use superusers to disseminate updates through multiple channels (e.g., huddles, meetings, targeted messages).

Position superusers as on-the-ground support during upgrades to provide real-time assistance to peers, to help peers understand the rationale and context around system updates, to convey the workflow impact of changes, and to reduce service desk volume. See an example in the Children’s Health case study.

Leverage superusers for regular peer rounding and issue identification.

Prepare superusers to share tips, observe workflows, and uncover issues while rounding.

Ensure superusers assist peers in adopting optimal organization- and department-level workflows to promote efficiency and standardization.

Establish a process for superusers to gather peer input and standardize how insights from rounding (e.g., challenges, risks, themes, opportunities) are documented and shared with IT and leadership teams. Use this feedback to inform prioritization, optimization decisions, and education plans.

Ensure superusers close the communication loop by explaining decisions and timelines back to their peers.

Build Pathways to Develop, Recognize & Retain High-Impact Superusers

Sustain your superuser program by creating career opportunities for superusers, using the role as a proving ground for future leaders, trainers, and managers.

Encourage superusers to lead and develop quality improvement initiatives (e.g., improving documentation efficiency, consistently leveraging personalization tools, reducing clicks).

Embed superusers into your organization’s change management framework and approach to ensure changes (e.g., upgrades or policy/structure changes) are communicated effectively.

Where appropriate, provide select superusers with limited technical access to support small, localized EHR changes (i.e., changes should only impact a small number of clinicians within a given area), and establish clear guardrails so changes remain controlled and aligned with governance standards.

Evaluate superuser effectiveness through clinician feedback, leadership observations, training outcomes, ticket trends, and adoption metrics. Use this data to refine role expectations.

Offer formal titles, professional development opportunities, greater governance participation, broader education opportunities, and/or advancement pathways to superusers.

Provide superusers with regular, formal meeting opportunities (e.g., in-person or virtual meetings, Teams channels, breakout sessions based on strategic priorities or interests) to celebrate and share success stories, discuss how to tackle role-specific challenges, share and generate ideas, and provide support to one another.

Leverage more seasoned superusers to mentor new superusers.

Publicly acknowledge superusers’ contributions and reinforce the value of the role.

Share success stories (e.g., via townhall meetings, team huddles, newsletters, emails) that demonstrate how superusers drive adoption, reduce frustration, or inform better decisions.

Create a monthly spotlight that highlights your organization’s superusers to create awareness