Measuring Clinician EHR Satisfaction Via the Arch Collaborative

Create your project team: Include core team members and operational and executive partners who will lead improvement efforts in their respective areas. The human resources required for a successful project can vary by organization. We recommend that you involve individuals in the following roles:

Watch Putting Arch Collaborative Data into Action: Presented by Kay Burke (UCSF Health) and Alan Nebeker (KLAS Research) at the 2024 Arch Collaborative Learning Summit, this presentation details steps to a successful Arch Collaborative measurement, focusing on operationalizing the data. However, knowing the objectives from the beginning will guide your efforts. Download the associated Excel workbook from the encore presentation given during the Collaborative’s October 2024 quarterly networking session.

Build your measurement objectives: With your project team, determine your objectives and success criteria (e.g., baseline measurement, remeasure to gauge initiative impact, remeasure after moving to a new EHR).

Tie your objectives to the organization’s broader strategic objectives (e.g., improved clinician satisfaction, lower burnout, reduced turnover, enhanced EHR education)

Discuss hurdles to improving EHR satisfaction and how to overcome them

Discuss resource needs (e.g., executive sponsor, project manager, sprint team)

Determine your survey timing: Review your EHR upgrade schedule and other surveys across the organization to determine the optimal time to administer the Arch Collaborative EHR Experience Survey.

Determine which clinicians to include in the measurement: Options include advanced practice providers, allied health professionals, nurses, physicians, physician residents, and fellows.

Determine your kickoff date: We recommend kicking off your survey on a Tuesday. Most clinicians complete the Arch Collaborative survey on Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday, with many participants completing the survey one or two days after the survey kickoff.

Complete the KLAS scoping survey: Your responses will help KLAS understand your measurement objectives, project sponsors, desired survey timing, clinician population, hurdles to improving EHR satisfaction, and recent EHR improvement initiatives.

Provide counts of your clinical population: Aiming for a distributed data sample, KLAS will use this information to calculate minimum target response rates by clinical background.

Create your survey communication plan: Ensure your plan is clear and consistent and includes an impactful message about why you want to capture the voice of your clinicians. Your KLAS client success manager will send you communication best practices. Engage your internal project and marketing teams to help develop your survey communication plan.

Successful communication plans include why you are surveying your clinicians, why their candid opinions are crucial, how you will track your progress, how you will communicate with survey participants, who will send communication messages, when you will deploy your messages, message content, a plan to communicate findings to the organization, and how you will take action on the survey results.

If this is not your first Arch Collaborative measurement, be sure to include what you have worked on since your last measurement.

Determine how you will communicate with survey participants. Plan to leverage multiple communication formats, including email, screen savers, electronic messages (e.g., videos), newsletters, flyers, posters distributed across your campuses, and messages in team huddles and other meetings.

For an example, view Emplify Health’s survey announcement video here.

Include a personal invitation from C-level sponsors across surveyed clinical areas and make sure it includes why the survey is important and how you plan to turn the data into action.

Determine when you will send the initial invite to survey participants. Include the survey dates and the cadence for follow-up reminders.

As soon as your survey is finalized with KLAS, your KLAS client success manager will send you a QR code to include in your communication.

Begin communicating about the survey a few weeks before the survey kickoff. The longer you market the survey, the more successful you will be.

Determine the cadence for updating your project team, senior leaders, and clinicians about the survey progress.

Create a landing page with an update on survey progress that includes a link to the survey. Leave a placeholder for a “We Heard You” section to be added once you have received your survey results. Include how you will collaborate with various stakeholders to act on the results.

Work with your KLAS representatives to create your EHR Experience Survey: KLAS will schedule a survey-preparation call with you to review the core questions (included in every survey for benchmarking purposes) and any additional questions you wish to add.

You may include up to ten additional questions in your survey. These questions can come from KLAS’ existing bank of additional questions, or your organization can create your own custom questions.

Shorter survey lengths encourage higher clinician participation, prevent clinician frustration, and set you up for success with subsequent measurements.

If you have measured previously, note any questions that are not part of the core question set that you wish to include in the follow-up measurement.

Finalize survey questions: KLAS will send a Word document as well as a survey preview link for you to use to test the survey.

After you test the survey, send any changes to your KLAS representatives.

Once the survey questions are finalized, KLAS will send the survey link for your clinicians to use, a finalized Word document with the survey questions, and a QR code that you can incorporate into your communication plan.

Begin surveying: Continue to implement your communication plan.

KLAS will provide a live Qualtrics link that will allow you to monitor data-collection progress. Bookmark this page and check it regularly to understand who is participating in the survey, inform your communication plan, and enable you to follow up in areas that are light.

Send updates to your senior leadership, project team, and clinicians.

Review progress with your KLAS representative to determine when to close your survey.

Sign vendor/firm data-sharing agreement(s): These agreements authorize KLAS to share your survey results with your vendor and/or firm partners. This step is highly recommended because these partners can help as you implement action plans based on the survey results.

Invite your vendor/firm partners to the action plan call with KLAS: This ensures you are aware of their upgrades, recommendations, and available resources.

Close your survey

Attend a 30-minute expectations call with KLAS: This call will help your organization prepare for the deep dive. Ensure the appropriate individuals (e.g., project executive sponsor, individuals responsible for EHR education/training and EHR support, IT leadership, well-being leads) are scheduled to attend the deep dive, review next steps, and review areas you wish to focus on.

During the expectations call, the KLAS team (insights director and KLAS client success manager) usually meets with 5-6 members of the organization’s project team.

During the expectations call, please designate someone from your organization to introduce the survey process during the deep dive, convey why the organization participated, and provide an overview of what you plan to accomplish.

KLAS has found that keeping cameras on during this call fosters collaboration and a better discussion of the data.

Participate in 90-minute deep dive with KLAS: During the deep dive, KLAS will provide three to four high-level, actionable findings and feedback (i.e., charts and clinician comments) from the main benchmarked areas.

The aim of the deep dive is to discuss areas that are going well and opportunities for improvement with key stakeholders of your project team. This discussion furthers KLAS’ understanding of your objectives, resources, and obstacles.

KLAS has found that keeping cameras on during the deep dive facilitates collaboration and a robust discussion.

Plan to have a small group (no larger than 5-10 people from your organization) at the initial deep dive to foster an engaging conversation as we review the high-level findings. KLAS is happy to schedule additional deep dives with a broader audience after your project team has participated in the first.

KLAS records the deep dive and will provide the recording and deck to you so others may review the information at your discretion.

At the beginning of the deep dive, KLAS will provide time for you to introduce the survey process, remind participants of the measurement objectives, and set the stage for your next steps, including the action plan call with KLAS.

Participate in a 60-minute action plan call with KLAS: A few weeks after the deep dive, you will meet with KLAS for an action plan call to begin formulating your project improvement plan and share your priorities and next steps. During this call, we will invite you and your team to share plans for improving one or two key action areas reviewed during the deep dive.

KLAS will provide feedback on your plan and recommend relevant case studies, reports, and webinars from other organizations who have tackled issues similar to the ones you are working to solve. We recommend that you invite your EHR vendor and third-party firms who are invested in your clinicians’ EHR success to the call to support and strengthen your efforts and inform you of their available resources.

Leverage the KLAS report Operationalizing Arch Collaborative Data as you prepare for the call and develop your long-term action plan. The report includes guidance on sharing results with your leadership team and clinicians and outlines steps to identify action items and pilot initiatives.

Plan to leverage pulse surveys to gauge progress from pilot programs and full-scale initiatives.

Continue to meet with your KLAS client success manager regularly: We recommend quarterly meetings to collaborate and share additional information (e.g., reports, case studies, webinars) that will be helpful in fine-tuning your action plan.

Determine when you will next complete a full measurement to check your results: KLAS recommends surveying your clinicians annually.