Virtual EHR Education 2025
A Transformative, Scalable & Effective Approach
Virtual EHR education has shifted from a rarely leveraged training modality, to a pandemic-driven necessity (mainly composed of static videos), to an innovative, engaging learning experience—one that healthcare organizations are increasingly utilizing amid tightening budgets and strained resources. Recent research from the KLAS Arch Collaborative indicates that good EHR education is the second-most important factor that can influence clinicians at risk of leaving their organization to stay. Over the past few years, nearly 70% of surveyed clinicians have reported that self-directed, asynchronous learning is helpful. To help organizations deliver successful EHR training, this report examines the benefits of virtual EHR education, its impact on clinician satisfaction, and best practices for implementing it.
Access the feedback of
500,000+ clinicians worldwide
Access the feedback of
500,000+ clinicians worldwide
Here is my information:
Defining Virtual Training
For the purposes of this report, virtual EHR education is defined as the combination of self-directed virtual education (asynchronous) and instructor-led virtual education (akin to an online classroom setting). This report focuses more on self-directed virtual education due to its scalability and high energy in the market.
Self-Directed Virtual Education Is Revolutionizing Clinician EHR Training
Benefits of Self-Directed Virtual Education
For the organization
Geographic barriers are removed
Familiar methods and technologies are leveraged
Training is constantly available
Clinicians spend less time on training because it is focused to their specialty/role
Variation between trainers is eliminated, which can reduce confusion for clinicians
Clinician participation is higher
Actionable analytics are generated
Education can be broadly scaled with fewer resources (people and money)
Content can be more quickly created
For the clinician
Geographic barriers are removed
Familiar methods and technologies are leveraged
Training is constantly available (including in clinicians’ moment of need)
Clinicians spend less time on training because it is focused to their specialty/role
Variation between trainers is eliminated, which can reduce confusion for clinicians
Clinicians can self-pace progress based on familiarity with concepts
Training can be reaccessed to strengthen understanding
Both healthcare organizations and clinicians benefit from self-directed virtual training. Contrary to popular belief, physicians and nurses of all experience levels—from less than a year to over 10 years—agree that self-directed virtual training is useful. Several interviewed organizations report that their clinicians spend fewer hours on self-directed virtual training, enabling them to begin caring for patients more quickly, which is especially helpful in this time when staffing is stretched thin. Healthcare organizations also value self-directed virtual EHR education for the actionable analytics on clinicians’ content usage and progress; these analytics help leaders focus on individual learning needs and maximize the impact of education. Additionally, due to the scalable and resource-light nature of virtual education, EHR trainers no longer have to spend hours teaching in a classroom; rather, they can work with clinicians one-on-one and maintain touchpoints over time, providing an additional layer of education for clinicians who need more support.
Virtual EHR Education Has Caught Up with & Now Rivals Traditional Education Methods for Physicians & Nurses
In addition to being scalable and requiring fewer resources, both self-directed and instructor-led virtual EHR education have proven to be as effective as the traditional methods of classroom training and departmental meetings, with little to no difference in Net EHR Experience Score† (for either physicians or nurses). Further, self-directed and instructor-led virtual learning often correlate with higher EHR satisfaction than other traditional methods, such as scheduled one-on-one training and rounding. Clinicians often prefer self-directed virtual education in a microlearning format that is short and focused—enabling users to learn information in a manageable way that improves comprehension.
eLearning Platforms Can Reduce Time It Takes Trainers to Create Content for Self-Directed Virtual Learning
Some organizations report that commercially available eLearning platforms enable faster content creation, minimizing the time trainers spend developing content and allowing them to focus on other training needs. According to Derek Harley, EHR learning and development manager at M Health Fairview, the organization’s instructional designers have saved a significant amount of time by creating content in a commercially available training platform.
“In the industry, the average time to develop super engaging simulated content is 66 hours per 17 minutes of eLearning time. At our organization, the instructional designer that developed the nurse efficiency course created 105 minutes of eLearning in 95.5 hours, equaling a time savings of approximately 76% over the industry.” —Derek Harley
Read about M Health Fairview’s case study with their eLearning platform as well as other case studies below.
Virtual Education Is a Game Changer & Self-Directed Virtual Education Maximizes Training Value
Overall, clinicians at healthcare organizations that offer multiple types of EHR education—blending traditional and virtual methods together—report the highest satisfaction. Taking a blended approach to education helps organizations cater to a wider variety of learning preferences and enables organizations to benefit from the virtual options that are less resource intensive.
When clinicians participate in only one training type, virtual instructor-led training is correlated with a slightly higher Net EHR Experience Score (NEES). Clinicians who participate in self-directed virtual education report very similar scores as compared to those who participate in other training types. Beyond that, self-directed virtual education is often less expensive, more scalable, and less resource intensive than other types of training.
Organizations that blend self-directed virtual education with other approaches often use self-directed virtual education for onboarding and leverage more traditional methods for workflow-specific education. Still, there are many paths to success depending on an organization’s specific needs.
Optimizing Virtual EHR Education: Best Practices for Enhanced Effectiveness
As healthcare organizations continue to strengthen their virtual EHR education programs, a successful blueprint includes the following four steps:
1. Prioritize clinician convenience
- Store educational content in a centralized place and provide direct access via the EHR; include content on mobile and desktop platforms
- Ensure content is easy to find—include user-friendly filters and a powerful search tool, and configure the system to display only courses relevant to the clinician’s role/specialty
- Design a clear education path; ensure tip sheets, videos, and courses are well organized and include reliable, up-to-date information
- Create concise courses (15–60 minutes each) and microlearning modules (3–5 minutes each); for courses longer than 15 minutes, add a description of the learning goals
2. Build with clinicians in mind
- Create a video of a senior leader introducing the virtual EHR education program and promoting its benefits (e.g., centralized resources, 24/7 access, etc.); use real examples of positive outcomes
- Design content that engages learners—maintain consistent branding and leverage multiple approaches (e.g., videos, tip sheets, community discussions, hands-on learning, gamification, etc.)
- Design courses specific to roles and specialties so that clinicians don’t have to sift through irrelevant content; emphasize this targeted content as an advantage
- Give clinicians protected time to participate in virtual EHR education
- Explain the “why” behind actions in the EHR
- Include some repetition over time to solidify concepts
“High-quality training in our learning management system can be great as long as it is geared toward my specialty. For example, it is useful to have med-surg updates, but I do not want to be assigned to mother-baby or NICU training because those areas are not applicable to my job.” —Nurse
3. Create a strategy for clinician engagement
- Direct clinicians first to the centralized learning repository so that they can adapt to a self-service mentality
- Ensure learners have access to reliable equipment
- Have clinician peers promote the benefits of virtual EHR education
- Implement a teaching element for learning clinicians to promote better retention
- Establish a variety of ways for clinicians to ask questions and receive support and guidance
- Consider paying clinicians to engage in virtual EHR education (for more information, watch this presentation from Inova Health System)
4. Plan for long-term success
- Ensure leadership is aligned with virtual EHR education strategy and recognizes its value
- Build in additional help for struggling clinicians
- Test for learner competency via proficiency tests and EHR user-efficiency data
- Regularly evaluate and update virtual EHR education content
- Identify education gaps; review service-desk tickets to understand whether training-related requests have decreased and to uncover additional training opportunities
- Pair clinicians who have completed virtual EHR education with a peer/informaticist/
superuser to solidify concepts and provide on-the-job training
Strengthen Your Virtual EHR Education Foundation for Future Success
Measure clinicians’ education satisfaction: No matter where your organization is in your EHR education journey, measuring your current state is a crucial part of the process. Administer short internal surveys to clinicians who have completed their virtual EHR education to get feedback on what went well, where they needed additional help, and what improvement ideas they have. Persistently asking for and incorporating clinician feedback will show care for clinicians’ needs and help improve virtual EHR education. Learning from other organizations and making iterative changes will ensure continued success.
Track trends in clinician EHR satisfaction: Measuring and remeasuring your clinicians’ EHR satisfaction via the Arch Collaborative EHR Experience Survey will help your organization identify year-over-year changes in EHR satisfaction, demonstrate the strengths of your virtual EHR education program, and reveal opportunities to further improve the program. Measure specific pieces of your virtual EHR education program via pulse surveys offered through the Arch Collaborative.
Monitor the success of trainers and education programs: Leveraging the Arch Collaborative Trainer Quality Benchmark survey will quickly pinpoint key trainer competencies as well as areas for development.
Need help getting started?
Start with your EHR vendor’s training offering: Leveraging your EHR vendor’s virtual education can be an easy way to begin establishing a virtual EHR education program or to supplement an existing program.
Explore third-party vendors and services firms: Find information about vendors and firms that can help you create or further develop a virtual education program in the 2023 EHR Education Vendor & Firms Capabilities report. Or read about how Ozarks Healthcare successfully partnered with Sedona Learning Services to reimagine their onboarding training with online and self-directed education modules.
Additionally, the third-party vendors and services firms below are members of the Arch Collaborative and offer platforms and/or services for virtual EHR education. Validated outcomes for several of these vendors are included in the case studies in the next section.
- 314e
- Amplifire
- CSI Companies
- MedPower
- Nordic
- ReMedi Health Solutions
- Tegria
- uPerform
Virtual EHR Education Success Stories: Best Practices from Leading Organizations
Click on link to access full versions of the case studies summarized below
A Transformative Training Experience through Adaptive & Role-Based EHR Education
Aspirus Health partnered with uPerform to introduce a computer-based learning-on-demand training program. The organization has centralized a wide breadth of learning materials (nearly 600 tip sheets) and resources, and users can quickly and easily access these directly from the EHR. As Aspirus moved to computer-based training, they leveraged curriculum review boards, created and implemented role-based training, and incorporated the “why” behind specific actions in the EHR workflow. Role-specific tip sheets and live simulations reduced the need for live training sessions while enhancing the accessibility of training materials.
Organizational Outcomes
Fast Lane to Efficiency: How Emplify Health’s Virtual Training Strategy Accelerated Onboarding & Educator Effectiveness
Emplify Health (formerly Gundersen Health System) leverages virtual EHR education to ensure training occurs at the right time, in the right place, and for the right person, as this helps decrease the time clinicians spend in training. Virtual EHR training has enabled Emplify Health to overcome geographic constraints, standardize education content, and more efficiently use their resources. The organization has upskilled their trainers by turning them into coaches. These coaches can answer questions, work with providers in a one-on-one setting, help with EHR personalization, and promote further learning through the EHR’s playground environment.
Organizational Outcomes
Improving EHR Training & Support Through Role-Based Training & a Structured but Flexible Support System
Note: This case study has not yet been published and will be available in the near future.
Frances Mahon Deaconess Hospital partnered with MedPower to create self-directed virtual education for both their clinical and nonclinical staff members. Realized benefits include accessibility for staff members to complete training at their own pace, scalability of EHR education that is now delivered efficiently in a standardized format, reduced costs for in-person training experiences (since neither learners nor instructors travel), enhanced learner engagement with the interactive microlearning content that caters to various learning preferences, real-time analytics to identify training gaps and provide targeted support, and reduced disruption since self-directed virtual learning enables learners to complete training in smaller increments, minimizing time away from patient care and administrative responsibilities.
Organizational Outcomes
Comprehensive Initial Training Sets Up Nurses for EHR Satisfaction
Hamad Medical Corporation’s (HMC) comprehensive approach to nurse onboarding training helps them ensure that nurses leverage the EHR successfully from the beginning. HMC’s onboarding training pairs web-based training (eLearning modules tailored to specific roles and work locations) with classroom training, mentorship, and competency testing. This approach has resulted in a high percentage of nurses agreeing that the virtual training met their needs, the initial training prepared them to use the EHR, and the training was workflow specific.
Organizational Outcomes
Partnering to Improve EHR Education & Trust in IT by Enabling Learning & Efficiency
M Health Fairview integrated their EHR with uPerform’s learning platform to centralize and simplify access to learning materials and resources. The organization also centralized the processes of contacting live support for real-time assistance and booking additional efficiency training sessions. M Health Fairview’s live support personnel can guide clinicians to existing resources in the learning library to reinforce the concept that these resources are constantly available to clinicians. New hires now engage in asynchronous eLearning before attending virtual instructor-led classes.
Organizational Outcomes
Optimizing Clinician Training by Leveraging Data & Expertise
UTHealth Houston successfully pairs eLearning with other education methods (e.g., at-the-elbow support, department meetings, one-on-one training), relying on Epic Signal data to confirm where EHR tools may be underutilized and matching training to clinicians to fill knowledge gaps. UTHealth Houston utilizes gamification tools like Kahoot! to engage learners, and the organization ensures training is relevant to learners. Based on end-user feedback, the training team centralized more than 800 tip sheets on SharePoint to foster clinician learning with easy and quick access to learning materials. UTHealth Houston has provided growth paths for their training specialists, many of whom are now physician builders, EHR champions, and informaticists.
Organizational Outcomes
Transforming Initial EHR Education
UW Medicine partnered with Amplifire and implemented virtual EHR education in carefully planned phases. Tegria advised UW Medicine on curriculum mapping, performed a gap analysis, authored content, and helped facilitate user feedback. Additionally, Tegria helped to upskill the organization’s trainers by teaching them to author content in the Amplifire platform. UW Medicine feels that including subject matter experts from the beginning fostered the success of the Amplifire rollout. The organization consistently collects end-user feedback and leans into Amplifire’s analytics to identify improvement opportunities and further optimize their virtual EHR education. Leveraging eLearning for onboarding has reduced the time clinicians spend on onboarding courses, enabling clinicians to be on the floor more quickly. Overall, UW Medicine has reduced nurses’ training time by 75% and physicians’ training time by 50%.
Organizational Outcomes
Healthcare Organizations & Clinicians Weigh In on the Benefits of Virtual EHR Education
Voice of the Organization
“A barrier to classroom training is our large footprint. We span multiple states, and we are expanding. We are not going to have a provider drive for hours just to get in a classroom. That is illogical and doesn’t make good use of our resources or our time.” —Corporate IT trainer
“As we move from classroom training to online training, we follow the experience in classrooms taught in high school and college. People are coming to us with more of an adaptable learning style and are able to get what they need from the content.” —Director of clinical informatics
“The platform enables us to follow up with people who are struggling. We have so much more data that allows us to follow up with individual users, look for themes and trends, and check annual competencies. We can see the big things that people generally struggle with.” —Director of clinical informatics and education
“With eLearning, we are moving toward educating clinicians up front and then having touchpoints over time. That was impossible and not scalable with instructor-led training.” —Director of clinical informatics and education
“We don’t pull people into classrooms for new employee EHR training. I’m very specific when I say that because we have absolutely no problem whatsoever meeting with people one-on-one for efficiency training, and that gives us a bigger bang for our buck. We do not get a bang for our buck by bringing people into the classroom. The name of the game is efficiency—and speed. We need clinicians taking care of patients as soon as possible. We will remove as many barriers as we can.” —Corporate IT trainer
Voice of the Clinician
“Self-directed virtual training allowed me to find additional Epic features that were not being utilized, specifically the tap-and-go in the ED STAT narrator. With some work, our team was able to identify barriers to its use and submit tickets to improve access to promote its use for the intended functionality.” —Nurse
“Hands-on self-directed virtual training was the best training for me because I was able to work through the steps that are applicable to my role.” —Nurse
“I prefer to do virtual self-directed training. I can review whatever I might need to. While I like the direct contact with a person, I don’t remember all they say and then I need to repeat what they said. It is not as efficient as when I’m working with the computer on my own.” —Nurse
“I find that the training available through the learning management platform is the most helpful because I can do it on my own schedule and review it if I need a refresher.” —Nurse
“I like being able to participate in training on my own schedule and at my learning pace. Group courses are too painfully slow and teach to the lowest common denominator.” —Physician
“Self-directed training enables me to learn at my own pace and experience level.” —Physician
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, almost 300 healthcare organizations have surveyed their end users and over 380,000 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.
The Arch Collaborative has been surveying clinicians about their EHR experience since 2018. To make sure we are reporting the most up-to-date trends, the data charted in this report includes responses only from 2022–2024.
Report data comes from three sources: (1) clinician responses to the Arch Collaborative EHR Experience Survey, (2) in-depth interviews with organizations that heavily leverage virtual EHR education, and (3) case studies written in partnership with organizations that receive high marks from clinicians for the helpfulness and effectiveness of their virtual EHR education.
Report Non-Public HTML Body
Report Public HTML Body
Featured in Learning Tracks
Topics
Report Topics
Clinician Efficiency and Personalization, Nursing EHR Success, Onboarding EHR Education, Ongoing EHR EducationThis material is copyrighted. Any organization gaining unauthorized access to this report will be liable to compensate KLAS for the full retail price. Please see the KLAS DATA USE POLICY for information regarding use of this report. © 2019 KLAS Research, LLC. All Rights Reserved. NOTE: Performance scores may change significantly when including newly interviewed provider organizations, especially when added to a smaller sample size like in emerging markets with a small number of live clients. The findings presented are not meant to be conclusive data for an entire client base.