At-the-Elbow with Brian Patty, MD: Planning EHR Improvement Investments? Answer These Four Questions First

By Thomas Charlton, CEO Goliath Technologies

NEW digital experience data enables clinical and IT leaders to get the answers to critical questions before investing resources to improve EHR performance.

Healthcare organizations have spent years trying to improve clinician EHR experience through surveys, physician rounding, infrastructure investments, optimization projects, and training initiatives. While these efforts are often backed by strong business rationale, many organizations still lack objective data showing exactly which clinicians are struggling, why the experience is poor, and whether investments actually improved outcomes.

In this At-the-Elbow conversation, Dr. Brian Patty shares why the industry has historically operated in what he describes as a “whack-a-mole” model of clinician experience improvement, and how new technology is fundamentally changing that dynamic.

Want to learn more? Hear Dr. Patty live on June 18th – sign up here!

Dr. Patty, you’ve described improving clinician EHR experience as a game of “whack-a-mole.” What did you mean by that?

Dr. Brian Patty:

For years, health systems have depended on anecdotal complaints, physician rounding, and fragmented data to identify clinician experience issues. The loudest problems received attention first, but organizations rarely had visibility into the experience of all clinicians across the enterprise. That created a reactive cycle where teams were constantly chasing isolated complaints without understanding the broader patterns or root causes.

Thomas Charlton:

Why do you think health systems accepted this approach for so long?

Dr. Brian Patty:

Because, historically, there was no alternative. Organizations made decisions using the best information available at the time. Surveys and rounding were valuable because they created dialogue with clinicians, but they were inherently subjective, time-consuming, and impossible to scale across thousands of users in near real time. Clinical and IT leaders simply did not have access to objective clinician experience intelligence derived directly from the EHR ecosystem itself.

Thomas Charlton:

What has changed now?

Dr. Brian Patty:

What’s changed is that the data now exists. Through integrations with systems like Epic and Oracle Health, organizations can now measure clinician EHR experience directly from the technology clinicians use every day. That includes visibility into speed, reliability, workflow interruptions, and the infrastructure conditions contributing to degraded experience.

For the first time, health systems can move beyond assumptions and understand the digital experience of 100% of clinicians, not just the small percentage who respond to surveys or escalate issues.

Thomas Charlton:

How does that change decision-making for clinical and IT leadership?

Dr. Brian Patty:

It changes everything. Historically, organizations made large investments in infrastructure, optimization, training, or consulting initiatives without always having precise baseline data or a way to measure outcomes afterward.

Today, leaders can ask and answer four foundational questions before making those investments:

1. What is the actual lived experience of my clinicians when they are using the EHR?
2. If there are performance issues, how pervasive, frequent, and critical are they?
3. What are the root causes of these performance issues so precision investments can be made to fix?
4. Did my deployment of resources improve clinician experience?

That shifts organizations from reactive decision-making to precision improvement driven by evidence.

Thomas Charlton:

What does this mean for the future of clinician experience improvement?

Dr. Brian Patty:

I believe we are entering a new era where clinician experience improvement becomes measurable, operationalized, and proactive. Instead of reacting to isolated complaints, organizations can continuously monitor experience, identify emerging issues early, prioritize investments with confidence, and measure outcomes over time.

That is a fundamentally different operating model than the industry has had historically, and one that has the potential to significantly improve both clinician satisfaction and operational performance.

Hear Dr. Patty live on June 18th – sign up here.

To learn more about how Goliath helps health systems surface and resolve clinician EHR experience issues, reach out directly at techinfo@goliathtechnologies.com or request to speak with a healthcare IT consultant.