In the evolving landscape of healthcare, virtual EHR training stands out as a transformative force, redefining how clinicians are trained and supported. As electronic health record (EHR) systems continue to evolve at a rapid pace, keeping clinicians informed and prepared for change becomes critical to the success of your operations. Healthcare organizations increasingly turn to innovative solutions like uPerform to enhance their EHR training programs, ensuring clinicians remain efficient users as workflows, procedures and processes evolve.
This article delves into key findings from the recent “Virtual EHR Education 2025” KLAS Research report and showcases success stories from leading health systems that have embraced virtual learning to drive significant improvements in clinician satisfaction and efficiency.
Understanding Virtual EHR Training
Virtual EHR training refers to web-based platforms and integrated resources that facilitate EHR training, enabling healthcare professionals to learn and master EHR systems from any location. By leveraging digital tools and resources, virtual EHR training provides a flexible, accessible and scalable approach to training, critical for modern healthcare environments where EHR systems are updated as often as quarterly.
The Rise of Virtual EHR Training
The COVID-19 pandemic forced health systems to reconsider their traditional approaches to EHR education. As policies and procedures changed daily, and gathering clinicians in a classroom was not an option, the need for efficient and scalable training solutions became paramount. Virtual EHR training emerged as a vital tool, enabling health systems to continue training despite physical distancing measures.
This shift not only ensured continuity in education, but also highlighted the benefits of virtual learning, such as accessibility, adaptability and cost-effectiveness. As a result, many health systems have permanently integrated virtual EHR training into their training strategies, recognizing its potential to enhance clinician proficiency in a rapidly changing digital world.
Virtual EHR Training Benefits
Many organizations have found significant returns on investment by switching to hybrid or computer-based education strategies, including substantial cost-savings and reduction in time in training. Primary benefits of virtual EHR education include:
- Scalability and Accessibility: Virtual EHR training removes geographic barriers, allowing clinicians to access training materials anytime, anywhere. This flexibility is crucial for organizations with widespread operations, ensuring consistent learning experiences across multiple locations and large geographical areas.
- Enhanced Clinician Satisfaction: According to KLAS Arch Collaborative research, effective EHR training is a critical factor in EHR satisfaction and perhaps more importantly, retaining clinicians. Self-directed, asynchronous learning has been particularly impactful, with nearly 70% of surveyed clinicians finding it helpful, and the highest reported EHR satisfaction of any training type.
- Cost and Resource Efficiency: Virtual EHR training requires fewer resources compared to traditional classroom methods. It allows for quicker content creation and reduces the time clinicians spend in training, enabling them to focus more on patient care. Along with reduced time in training, organizations also see significant reductions in time spent on EHR documentation long after the training is complete.
- Actionable Analytics: With platforms like uPerform, we can gain valuable insights into clinician progress and tailor training to meet individual needs. This data-driven approach ensures that every clinician receives the support they need to succeed.
- Adaptability to Change: With EHR systems frequently undergoing updates and changes, virtual EHR training is necessary for keeping clinicians informed and prepared. Regular updates to training materials empower clinicians with what they need to know about the latest EHR functionalities, reducing the risk of errors and workarounds and enhancing patient care delivery.
Success Stories: Health Systems Leading the Way in Virtual EHR Training with uPerform
Now let’s dive into a few case studies featuring health systems who have made the decision to adopt virtual or computer-based EHR education programs powered by uPerform.
UCHealth: Scaling Virtual EHR Training Across a Growing Organization
UCHealth, a 15-hospital system spanning the Rocky Mountain region, aimed to address scalability challenges with its Epic training program. By transitioning to a self-paced virtual training strategy with uPerform, UCHealth has successfully delivered EHR go-live training to numerous hospitals and Community Connect sites across the mountain west.
Clinicians have also reported enhanced EHR satisfaction. With uPerform, UCHealth delivers virtual EHR training directly within clinicians’ workflows. The content is role-based and specific to their department and specialty, reducing the time it takes users to find answers to their specific how-to questions. This integrated help resulted in a 75% increase in initial training satisfaction and a 27% boost in EHR efficiency among its nurses.
“The more I can work to put that training right in front of them in Epic or in their workflow, the more success I’m going to have.” — Dr. CT Lin, CMIO at UCHealth
Best Practice: Deliver role-based virtual EHR training in the flow of work
UCHealth’s approach exemplifies the positive impacts of prioritizing clinician convenience by providing centralized, role-specific learning opportunities directly in the Epic workflow.
M Health Fairview: Centralizing Virtual EHR Training for Ease of Access & Efficiency
In 2019, M Health Fairview was looking for a solution to address concerns that its learning ecosystem was difficult to navigate and spread across multiple platforms, frustrating users. Fairview selected uPerform to centralize its learning content, allowing them to deliver content directly in the workflow where users need it most. Using this strategy of delivering content directly within Epic, Fairview was able to increase their e-consent utilization from 7% to 87% adoption while simultaneously improving overall EHR satisfaction (19-point increase) and improving the satisfaction with ongoing training (17% increase).
Utilizing uPerform, the training team also saw big wins with the ability to create a centralized hub for content creation and management. Fairview reports a 76% reduction in the time it takes to create content compared to the industry average. This has allowed the education team to focus on delivering high-quality, role-specific Epic training.
“uPerform cuts our simulation production time in half. And that’s huge because that’s time back to my [Education] team.” — Derek Harley, Manager, Learning & Development at M Health Fairview
Best Practice: Create a centralized virtual EHR training ecosystem for all learning needs
Fairview’s success underscores the importance of engaging learners with tailored content and fostering clinician engagement through centralized resources.
Aspirus Health: Increasing New Hire Epic Proficiency & Workflow Efficiency with Virtual EHR Training
In 2022, Aspirus Health determined that the computer-based onboarding training courses they created to support their organization during the pandemic were no longer meeting new hire needs. Aspirus used uPerform to update their new hire training courses and interactive simulations to reflect its standard Epic workflows.
With these updated courses and step-by-step simulations, new nurses at Aspirus Health achieved:
- 50% time savings on orders and notes activities in Epic, saving 40 minutes per shift in the first 30 days after onboarding
- Increased satisfaction with the virtual training experience
- Achieved 96% proficiency for new nurse hires on post-training assessments
In its 2024 Epic XGM presentation, Aspirus Health also shared that by implementing Curriculum Review Boaresd and interactive eLearning materials, Aspirus ensured training was workflow-specific and validated by experts.
“The interactive [simulation] was very beneficial. It seems very realistic, and that definitely helps me feel prepared for floor orientation.” — Aspirus Health Nurse
Best Practice: Aspirus Health’s approach underscores the importance of updating training content to align with current workflow needs, offering interactive simulations, and establishing Curriculum Review Boards for expert validation. This strategy, coupled with continuous feedback and iterative improvements, ensures new hires achieve proficiency and efficiency in Epic faster.
Best Practices for Optimizing EHR Training
- Prioritize Convenience: Centralize educational content, including offering a structured curriculum that’s intuitive, and offering learning in the EHR workflow.
- Make it Personal: Ensure that train materials are relevant to each user’s specific roles, departments and specialties, matching their unique workflows.
- Engage Learners: Utilize diverse formats, such as videos and interactive simulations to keep learners engaged.
- Offer Multiple Modalities: Design courses and learning materials that cater to different learning styles and preferences.
- Make Time for Learning: Offer protected time for clinicians to participate in learning opportunities.
- Empower Clinicians: Encourage a self-service culture by centralizing all education materials in a single learning repository for ease of use.
- Foster Engagement: Promote peer-to-peer learning and provide multiple channels for support and guidance.
- Plan for Long-Term Success: Align leadership with the virtual education strategy and regularly update content based on feedback and analytics. Use proficiency tests to assess learner competency and identify training gaps to continue to enhance your program with learning based on user needs.
The success stories from UCHealth, M Health Fairview and Aspirus Health demonstrate the transformative potential of virtual EHR training and Epic training. By embracing innovative solutions like uPerform and following industry best practices, healthcare organizations can enhance clinician satisfaction, improve efficiency, and ultimately deliver better patient care. As the healthcare landscape continues to evolve, investing in scalable and effective EHR training strategies will help propel your health system to new heights of technology adoption and optimization.
