Top 5 EHR Features Clinics Use Every Day
Campus health and counseling centers don’t have time for “nice-to-have” tools. The best EHR features are the ones teams lean on every single day—the ones that shave minutes off documentation, reduce clicks, and help students get what they need faster.
In my work with college health clinics and counseling & wellness centers, I hear about these features constantly. They’re practical, quick to adopt, and they make a real difference in clinics that are already stretched thin.
What makes certain EHR features most useful?
Higher ed care settings are uniquely complex. In the same week, you might be handling walk-ins, acute care, immunization compliance, counseling sessions, trainee supervision, and campus outreach. That’s exactly why the EHR features teams love most aren’t flashy—they’re the ones that protect time and improve consistency.
When documentation is faster, reminders run automatically, and note selection is standardized, teams can often reclaim capacity without adding headcount. And that matters not just to clinic leaders—but also to VPSAs looking closely at student access to care, retention numbers, and student success outcomes.
Below are the top five features clinics tell me they use all the time—and why they keep coming back to them.
(1) Auto Replace: Speed up charting with fewer keystrokes
Who uses it: Providers, nurses, counselors
Auto Replace is one of those “trust me, you’ll love this” features I show teams all the time. It expands short phrases into longer text, so providers aren’t retyping the same instructions and clinical language all day. And once people start using it, it tends to spread fast—because everyone wants the shortcut once they see how smooth it works.
In a college health clinic, Auto Replace is perfect for common patient instructions, follow-up language, or frequently used clinical phrasing. In counseling and wellness centers, it’s a great fit for consistent language in routine note sections, like consent statements or common intervention wording.
Value/impact: Time saved
This is an “in the moment” win. If a clinician uses it dozens of times a day, the minutes add up quickly!
Common use examples include:
- Standard discharge guidance
- Common assessment phrasing
- Frequently repeated counseling note language
(2) Note Favorites: Consistent templates that reduce errors
Who uses it: Providers, nurses, counselors
Note Favorites is what I recommend when someone tells me, “Our staff is spending too much time searching for the right template.” It gives clinicians quick access to the templates they use most, so charting stays consistent, and nobody has to guess which form they’re supposed to pull.
This is especially helpful in higher ed environments with rotating staff, per-diem coverage, or clinical trainees. I’ve worked with schools where a new part-time provider came in, opened the EHR, and immediately felt overwhelmed by choices.
Once we set up Note Favorites, it was like we cleared the clutter. The right templates were front and center, and the provider could focus on the visit—not navigating the EHR system.
Value/impact: Time saved + fewer errors
When the correct templates are easy to find, teams are less likely to select the wrong documentation type, waste precious time, or miss important components of the clinical note that are tied to billing or reporting.
(3) Notification Tool: Automated messages that reduce no-shows
Who uses it: Admin teams (often with clinic leadership support)
If a clinic asks me, “Where do we start if we want to improve the student experience?” I usually point to automation first. The Notification Tool helps teams automate appointment reminders, no-show messages, form completion reminders, and post-visit assessments, so staff aren’t manually tracking and managing follow-ups.
I worked with one campus that was constantly dealing with last-minute gaps in the schedule—especially during peak weeks. We set up reminders and a couple of simple form prompts, and within a short time, they told me the difference was noticeable. The schedule held more consistently and the front desk team wasn’t spending their day chasing down students.
Value/impact: Time saved + reduced no-shows
A reminder that prevents even a handful of missed appointments each week protects the schedule, maximizes clinicians’ time, and helps reduce wait times—especially when demand for services is high.
(4) M1 Default Note Type: The right note is easier to choose
Who uses it: Providers, nurses, counselors
This one sounds small on paper, but in real life it removes a very common friction point: “Which note type should I use for this type of visit?” Assigning a default note type to an appointment type makes the “right” choice obvious. Plus, it speeds up the start of documentation.
One of my favorite moments with this feature was working with a training-heavy clinic. They had student clinicians rotating regularly, and supervisors kept seeing the same issue: someone would select a note type that almost matched the visit, then everything downstream got messy.
Once we configured default note types, the clinic told me the impact was immediate. New student clinicians could spot the correct note type more easily, and supervisors spent less time untangling documentation.
Value/impact: Time saved + fewer errors
When clinics standardize note selection, they see better documentation quality and consistency across providers—which positively impacts reporting and quality review outcomes.
(5) Blaster: Targeted outreach and reporting support
Who uses it: Across clinic usage
Blaster is one of those tools teams really appreciate when the pressure is on. It supports mass communication to targeted student populations and can also serve as a helpful reporting tool—especially during time-sensitive moments like immunization season, policy changes, or public health concerns.
I was working with a school recently that needed to quickly identify and communicate with a specific group of students for compliance follow-up. They didn’t have time to build lists manually, and they definitely didn’t want to bounce between systems. Using Blaster, they could narrow in on the right population and get a message out fast—without the spreadsheet scramble.
Value/impact: Time saved + reporting
For many teams, this becomes one of the most practical tools for outreach and compliance-related workflows—especially when campus health guidance changes quickly or deadlines are fast approaching.
Quick checklist: What these EHR features improve
If you’re evaluating an EHR or optimizing your current setup, these five features tend to improve:
- Documentation speed and quality
- Standardization across staff and trainees
- Student attendance through automated reminders
- Data consistency for reporting and decision making
- Outreach to targeted populations (without manual list-building)
Key Takeaways
The best EHR features are the ones teams use daily because they remove friction from even the trickiest workflows.
Auto Replace, Note Favorites, Notification Tool, M1 Default Note Type, and Blaster help campus clinics save time, reduce errors, and improve access for students.
