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.

P.S. Want a closer look? Schedule a demo to see Medicat’s tools in action.

Nearly 9 in 10 patients (89%) say it’s important to schedule appointments anytime using digital tools, and today’s students bring that expectation straight to campus. For campus leaders, this is more than a convenience trend. It’s now a core part of how students judge whether campus health services are accessible, trustworthy, and worth using.

Below are the top features and experiences today’s students expect from college health services. Plus, learn how clinics can deliver them without adding additional work.

1) Text reminders and mobile-friendly communication

Students live on their phones. If your campus health center still relies heavily on calls and voicemails, students may delay care or no-show, simply because the process feels cumbersome.

Text reminders help in two big ways:

• First, they reduce missed appointments by meeting students where they already are.
• Second, they lower the burden on your front desk staff because fewer students call in “just to confirm” or to cancel. This allows your staff to focus on the more important tasks at hand.

What this can look like in a higher-ed setting:

• Appointment reminders by text with clear instructions on how to confirm or cancel, i.e., reply with “1” to confirm or “2” to cancel
• Pre-visit forms available for health history, consent forms, and contact preferences
• Targeted outreach for time-sensitive needs (e.g., vaccine deadlines, lab follow-ups, referrals)

For college health clinics, text reminders can help drive attendance for immunization appointments, STI testing, follow-up visits, and vaccine clinic announcements.

2) Self-scheduling that actually works (and lives in a modern patient portal)

Students expect to book services the same way they book everything else: fast, online, and without waiting on hold. A modern patient portal is the centerpiece of that experience—especially when self-scheduling is baked in.

This is where many portals fall short: they technically exist, but they’re clunky, hard to find, or force students back into phone tag. When self-scheduling is easy and intuitive, it supports both access and clinic efficiency.

Here are a few high-impact self-scheduling features students value:

• Real-time booking (not “request an appointment and wait”)
• Clear visit types (e.g., “UTI symptoms,” “medication follow-up,” “same-day counseling consult”)
• Smart guardrails that route students to the right level of care (urgent vs. routine)

Operationally, self-scheduling can reduce inbound calls, shorten scheduling time, and make it easier to fill cancellations. That means campus health services can increase throughput without compromising the student experience.

3) “Less clicking, more caring”: automation that gives time back to staff

Let’s be honest — nobody wants to feel overlooked during their appointments. And college students absolutely notice when providers are rushed, distracted by screens, or spend half of the appointment furiously typing.

That’s why clinic leaders should care about what happens behind the scenes: technology that reduces manual work, so clinicians can be fully present.

Two examples that resonate with student priorities:

1. ICM Agent: fewer manual steps for immunization compliance

Immunization compliance is one of the most manual responsibilities for college health teams. When systems automate verification, flag noncompliance, and streamline follow-up, staff spend less time reviewing documents and more time helping students navigate next steps.

For schools juggling thousands of records, the ICM Agent offers the kind of automation that can be the difference between “deadline chaos” and a calm, trackable process.

–> Learn more about ICM Agent

2. Note Agent: More Face Time, Less Documentation Time

Students want to feel heard. Ambient listening tools can reduce documentation burden, helping providers maintain eye contact and build stronger rapport. In fact, research suggests eye contact is a big deal: 95.8% of patients reported feeling comfortable when clinicians used eye contact to strengthen the relationship.

Even small reductions in workflow friction matter. Note Agent’s clean interface and fewer clicks support faster charting and smoother appointments, which improves the student experience in a way they can actually feel.

–> Learn more about Note Agent

4) A seamless experience across medical, counseling, and wellness

A seamless experience is essential for providing a positive health experience to students on your campus. When campus services feel fragmented—different portals, separate forms, repeated intake questions—students can get confused and are more likely to disengage.

This is where integrated workflows can quietly improve care:

• Shared scheduling (so students land in the right place the first time)
• Coordinated referrals between medical, counseling, and wellness services
• Consistent communication and expectations across departments

For VPSAs and student affairs leaders, this is also a retention and student success issue. When access is simple, and care is coordinated, students get help earlier—before challenges escalate into academic disruption.

5) Digital convenience must come with trust and privacy

Even with online scheduling and messaging, students (and their parents) want reassurance that their information stays protected.

Any modern patient portal or messaging tool should be backed by clear privacy standards and role-based access. Additionally, it’s important to comply with healthcare and higher-ed requirements like HIPAA and FERPA.

A practical way to build trust is to communicate the “why” behind your workflows:

• Why certain visit types require screening questions
• Why are some appointment slots limited
• How privacy is protected across medical and counseling records

When students understand the process, they’re more likely to use it.

How to meet these expectations without burning out your team

You don’t have to rebuild everything at once. Many campuses see quick wins by prioritizing improvements that reduce friction for both students and staff:

• Turn on (or optimize) automated reminders for high no-show visit types
• Make self-scheduling the default for common appointment types

• Identify your biggest “click drains” and automate or simplify them (immunization review, repetitive documentation, intake routing)

P.S. As a Medicat customer, our support team can help with this!

Key Takeaways

Today’s students expect campus health services to feel as easy as the apps they use every day: text reminders, self-scheduling, and a modern patient portal are now baseline.

The most impactful upgrades also reduce staff workload. Moreover, through tools like Medicat’s ICM Agent and Note Agent, providers can spend more time connecting with students.

If you’re planning next steps, start with the friction points that affect both student access and staff time, then build toward a more seamless and trusted digital experience.

Want a more student-friendly health experience without adding clicks for staff? Schedule a demo with our team to explore our modern student portal experience, messaging tips, and documentation tools.

Immunization compliance can feel like a seasonal stress test—especially ahead of fall move-in. In a recent webinar, Ruth Patten, Director of Client Development, and Ann Wright, Director of Product, unpacked how Medicat’s new ICM Agent is designed to take a major chunk of manual verification off your plate.

Q1: What are the biggest pain points schools face related to immunization compliance management

Even with clear requirements and frequent outreach, many teams see the same issues every semester:

• Low student engagement: Students ignore messages or wait until the last minute.
• Incomplete submissions: Dates without documents (or documents without the required information like DOB and physician signature).
• Data-entry mistakes: Wrong dates or mismatched vaccines entered in the portal.
• Non-English records: Staff must request translations or rely on online language support.
• The summer time crunch: Reviews pile up; staffing fluctuates, and registration holds can start impacting students.

Q2: How manual is immunization verification today?

During our spring client survey, we uncovered that 93% of schools still do at least some manual verification /manual record entry.  Moreover, 30 of the schools we surveyed reported that more than half of their verification is done manually—a big signal that there are still ample opportunities for automation to make a big impact on compliance workflow.

Q3: What has Medicat already done to reduce manual work in immunization compliance?

We walked through several tools that many campuses already use:

1. Student portal data entry + upload to shift basic data entry away from staff
2. State immunization registry connections (automated push/pull—great when students were immunized in your state)
3. VeriVax integration to pull records across state lines when students were immunized elsewhere

However, even with these tools, a remaining slice of records (especially in international or non-state registry scenarios) still requires a human to compare documentation against what’s entered. This is why we’ve built the ICM Agent!

Q4: So… what is the ICM Agent?

ICM Agent is Medicat’s AI-powered tool that compares dates and details entered in the system to the dates/details shown on uploaded documentation. It then marks the appropriate immunization “facts” as verified (or leaves them unverified when sufficient documentation is missing).

The goal is simple: put more of the tedious comparison work onto the Agent’s plate while keeping a human in control in case any adjustments to compliance status need to be made.

This functionality builds on Medicat’s existing Immunization Compliance tools, including the student portal, state immunization registries, and streamlined document review.

Q5: How does ICM Agent help teams day-to-day?

There are four primary benefits to using the Medicat ICM Agent:

1. Less manual labor verifying immunization facts.
2. Faster processing across many files at once (instead of one-by-one review)
3. Human oversight stays in place (staff can see what AI did and override as needed)
4. Reduced risk of human error, like missed signatures or overlookeddetails

For campus health teams, the result is smoother, more efficient workflow without sacrificing accuracy or oversight.

Q6: How will staff know what was reviewed by AI or a human?

During our webinar, we shared a set of new icon statuses inside MedicatOne ICM:

Document icons (paper icons):

• Unprocessed (no human/AI has reviewed yet)
• Processed by human (verified by staff)
• Pending AI (queued for AI review)
• Processed by AI (AI reviewed and verified what it could)
• Failed (reserved for technical failures)

Fact icons (round dots):

• Unverified (no supporting documentation)
• Verified (trusted source like registry/VeriVaxor manually verified documentation)
• Verified by AI (the “favorite icon” moment—AI found proof in the document)

Q7: What happens if the AI can’t read a file?

In cases where a file can’t be fully processed, the system handles it in one of two ways:

• If the document is readable but contains no usable immunization data, the ICM Agent will mark the document as processed but will not verify any facts—mirroring how a human reviewer would handle the same situation.
• If the file is technically unreadable (for example, it can’t be opened), the document is flagged as failed, and staff can prompt the student to re-upload a valid file.

Q8: Can it handle waivers and lab results?

Support for waivers and lab results is part of the ICM Agent roadmap and will be introduced in future product phases. Each phase builds on the last to expand automation and reduce both student and staff workload.

Q9: Does ICM Agent store PHI?

Medicat’s ICM Agent does not persist PHI. The comparison happens “in memory,” and only the results are saved back into your Medicat system. Additionally, security documentation (HECVAT) is available upon request. Please email info@medicat.com for more information.

Q10: How do students learn what’s missing once ICM Agent reviews their submission?

This workflow can remain automated: when immunization fact statuses change, notifications can be sent to students directing them back to the portal, where the status of satisfied versus missing requirements is clearly displayed.

Pro tip: Teams can configure custom notifications to add more explicit instructions.

Q11: Is the ICM Agent expected to cause system delays?

No. The ICM Agent operates as a separate system on different servers than our EHR platform and does not interact directly with your SQL database. As a result, it does not impact overall system performance.

Key Takeaways

ICM Agent is built to reduce the heaviest part of immunization season workload: manual document comparison at scale—without removing human control.

If your team is already using MedicatOne cohorts, the student portal, a state registry interface, and/or VeriVax, ICM Agent is designed to close the “last mile” that still forces staff to do manual review.

Interested in learning more? Get in touch with our team, or sign up for the ICM Agent waitlist!

As college health and counseling teams face growing demand and not having enough time, new technology is helping providers focus more on students and less on screens. For health appointments, you have 20 minutes allotted for each visit. That’s 20 minutes to listen, diagnose, connect, and somehow document everything.

Counseling teams feel a similar squeeze. A session may be scheduled for 60 minutes, but that hour has to cover building rapport, working through concerns, and documenting progress. In reality, it often becomes 40 minutes of conversation and 20 minutes of paperwork—time that could be better spent supporting students.

So, you’re probably typing while talking, or staying late to finish notes after hours (maybe while eating lunch at your desk… again). But what if you could spend that time actually connecting with students — or finally make it to that 6 p.m. workout you’ve been missing?

There’s a better way to handle documentation — one that works quietly in the background while you focus on care. Let’s look at how ambient listening works and how it’s transforming the provider and student experience.

What Is an Ambient Listening Tool?

Think of ambient listening as your real-time documentation partner that seamlessly integrates with your EHR, like Medicat.

Using secure, permission-based AI, the tool “listens” to the natural conversation between a provider and a student during an appointment. As you focus on the student, it transcribes and structures the conversation in the background, automatically updating the clinical note in your EHR.

By the end of the session, your documentation is already organized and ready for quick review, edits, and sign-off — no extra typing, toggling, or note reconstruction required. You stay fully engaged in care; the ambient listener keeps your chart up to date, complete, and compliant.

How Does Ambient Listening Work?

Behind the scenes, ambient listening uses secure, AI-powered technology to simplify the documentation process from start to finish.

Here’s the play-by-play:

1. Secure Audio Capture: With the student’s consent, the conversation is recorded through the ambient listening tool.
2. Real-Time Transcription: Speech recognition technology converts spoken dialogue into accurate text as the visit unfolds.
3. Smart Summarization: AI identifies key details — like symptoms, assessments, and recommendations — and formats them into a clear, structured draft note.
4. Personalized Accuracy: The system learns your voice patterns over time, distinguishing you from other students in the room for even greater precision.
5. Quick Review and Sign-Off: At the end of the visit, review, make any necessary edits, and finalize your note. Documentation is completed before you leave the room.

It’s like having a trusted scribe working quietly in the background, so that you can stay focused on care, not the keyboard!

Why Providers Love It

Ambient listening isn’t just about saving time — it’s about giving time back.

• More Connection, Less Distraction: Look up, listen deeply, and build trust without your keyboard stealing the spotlight.
• Fewer After-Hours Notes: Leave the office on time, without a growing queue of unfinished notes.
• More Accurate Documentation: Notes are generated in real-time, capturing details you might forget later.
• Better Work-Life Balance: Enjoy that lunch break, take that yoga class, or just… rest.

With less time spent typing and more time spent connecting, care starts to feel personal again.

How It Fits Into Your Workflow

Here’s the best part: you don’t have to change how you work to benefit from it.

Ambient listening integrates directly with your existing EHR, fitting naturally into the appointments you already manage every day. Whether you’re a campus health provider documenting a student’s sore throat or a counselor capturing insights from a therapy session, the process feels familiar, just smoother and faster.

Your notes are drafted automatically, formatted for compliance, and ready for quick review before you move on to the next student. Less clicking. Less catching up. More time for meaningful care.

Privacy and Compliance You Can Count On

Privacy isn’t optional; it’s essential. The technology integrated within Medicat is built to keep student information safe, secure, and confidential.

End-to-End Encryption: Every word is encrypted from the moment it’s captured to the moment it’s stored, keeping conversations protected behind multiple layers of security.

• Controlled Access: Only authorized users within your EHR can view or manage the transcribed notes; no outsiders, no exceptions.
• Provider Control: You decide what gets saved, edited, or deleted before anything becomes part of the student’s record.
• HIPAA Compliance: The solution integrated within Medicat meets the highest standards for protecting health and education data.

Key Takeaways

Ambient listening helps providers stay focused on students while keeping documentation accurate and effortless. It saves time, reduces after-hours work, and supports stronger connections during each visit. Built with privacy and security at its core, the ambient listening technology integrated within Medicat meets the highest standards for protecting student health information.

As Medicat continues to expand its AI capabilities, every feature is designed to enhance care while keeping clinicians in control. When technology supports you behind the scenes, you can focus on what matters most… your students.

Explore Medicat’s campus health and counseling solutions or schedule a quick demo to see how we’re helping providers save time and strengthen student care.