Why Your EHR Is So Slow (And 7 Fixes That Don't Require Switching Systems)

It’s Monday morning. The waiting room is filling up. Your medical assistant is trying to pull up a patient chart and the screen just… sits there. The spinning wheel. The frozen screen. The lag between every click.

Your EHR system is slow again, and every minute it takes to load a chart is a minute your patients are waiting, your staff is frustrated, and your schedule falls further behind.

If you manage a medical practice in Tampa, Orlando, Lakeland, or anywhere in Central Florida, you’ve probably had this exact morning. And you’ve probably thought about switching EHR systems entirely — which sounds like a nightmare of data migration, retraining, and lost productivity.

The good news: most EHR performance problems have nothing to do with the EHR software itself. They’re caused by the infrastructure around it — your network, your hardware, your settings. And most of them can be fixed without switching systems.

Here are 7 common reasons your EHR is running slow, and practical fixes for each one.

1. Your Internet Connection Can’t Keep Up

The problem: If you’re using a cloud-based EHR — and most modern systems like athenahealth, Practice Fusion, and the cloud version of eClinicalWorks are cloud-based — your internet connection is the highway all your patient data travels on. If that highway is too narrow, everything slows to a crawl.

Many medical practices in Central Florida are still running on the same 50-100 Mbps internet plan they signed up for five years ago. Back then, you might have had 5 people using the system. Now you have 12 people streaming patient records, uploading images, running billing, and checking email — all on that same connection.

The fix:

• Test your actual speed — not what you’re paying for, but what you’re actually getting. Go to speedtest.net from a workstation during a busy time (not at 6 AM when nobody’s in the office). You need at least 25 Mbps download per 5 concurrent users for cloud-based EHR systems
• Upgrade to a business-class connection — residential internet plans don’t guarantee consistent speeds. Business-class fiber from providers like Spectrum Business or AT&T Fiber gives you dedicated bandwidth and faster support when things go down
• Consider a dedicated connection for your EHR — your IT provider can set up a separate VLAN (think of it as a dedicated lane on the highway) so your EHR traffic isn’t competing with YouTube videos and software updates

2. Your Network Equipment Is Outdated

The problem: Even if you have a fast internet connection, old networking equipment can create a bottleneck. That router your previous IT person installed in 2019? The consumer-grade Wi-Fi access point from Best Buy? They weren’t designed to handle the demands of a medical practice.

Switches, routers, and firewalls have processing limits. When those limits are reached, everything connected to the network slows down — and your EHR takes the biggest hit because it needs the most consistent, reliable connection.

The fix:

• Audit your network hardware. Ask your IT provider to check the age and specifications of your router, switches, firewall, and Wi-Fi access points. Business-grade network equipment designed for medical practices handles traffic more efficiently and includes built-in security features
• Replace anything older than 5 years. Network equipment has a useful life of 4-6 years in a medical office environment. After that, performance degrades and security vulnerabilities pile up
• Make sure workstations are on wired connections. Wi-Fi is convenient, but for workstations that access the EHR all day, a wired ethernet connection is faster and more reliable. Save Wi-Fi for patient check-in tablets and staff phones

3. Your Workstations Are Too Old or Too Underpowered

The problem: That computer at your checkout desk that takes 3 minutes to boot up in the morning? It’s probably running a 7-year-old processor with 4 GB of RAM, and it’s trying to run a modern web browser with your cloud-based EHR, your practice management system, and Microsoft Outlook — all at the same time.

Older workstations with traditional hard drives (HDDs) are especially slow. If you can hear the hard drive clicking and whirring when someone opens a program, that’s your bottleneck.

The fix:

• Minimum specs for EHR workstations in 2026: Intel Core i5 (or equivalent) processor, 16 GB RAM, solid-state drive (SSD), Windows 11 Pro. These aren’t premium specs — they’re the baseline for a workstation that won’t frustrate your staff
• If replacement isn’t in the budget right now, upgrading from an HDD to an SSD can make a dramatic difference for about $100-150 per machine. Adding RAM is another affordable upgrade that helps
• Plan a hardware refresh cycle. Workstations should be replaced every 4-5 years. Your managed IT provider can help you stagger replacements so you’re not buying 10 computers at once

4. Browser Problems: Cache, Extensions, and Too Many Tabs

The problem: If your EHR is cloud-based (accessed through a web browser like Chrome or Edge), the browser itself can be the culprit. Over time, browsers accumulate cached data, cookies, and extensions that slow everything down.

And then there’s the tab problem. Your front desk person has 14 browser tabs open — the EHR, the patient portal, the insurance verification site, their email, the lab results page, and a few tabs they opened last week and forgot about. Every open tab uses memory, and eventually there isn’t enough left for the EHR to run smoothly.

This is especially common with athenahealth and Practice Fusion, which run entirely in the browser and can be memory-intensive.

The fix:

• Clear browser cache weekly. In Chrome: Ctrl+Shift+Delete, select “Cached images and files,” and click “Clear data.” This takes 30 seconds and can noticeably improve EHR speed. Set a weekly reminder for your staff
• Limit browser extensions. Ad blockers, coupon finders, and social media extensions eat up memory. Your IT team can set a policy that restricts which extensions are allowed on work computers
• Set a tab limit. Encourage staff to close tabs they’re not actively using. Some practices have a “5-tab rule” — if you have more than 5 tabs open, close the ones you don’t need right now
• Use the recommended browser. Most EHR vendors recommend Chrome or Edge. Check your vendor’s documentation — using an unsupported browser can cause performance issues

5. Your EHR Configuration Needs Tuning

The problem: EHR systems are highly configurable, and the default settings aren’t always optimized for your practice’s workflow. Over time, as you add providers, templates, custom forms, and integrations, the system can slow down under the weight of its own configuration.

Common configuration issues that cause slowdowns:

• Custom templates with too many embedded fields or auto-populate rules
• Excessive chart alerts and pop-ups that fire every time a record is opened
• Reports running in the background during peak patient hours
• Too many active users on a single database (for server-based installations of eClinicalWorks or similar systems)

The fix:

• Schedule a configuration review with your EHR vendor. Most vendors — including athenahealth and eClinicalWorks — offer optimization consultations. They can analyze your setup and recommend changes specific to your workflow
• Move heavy reports to off-hours. If you run end-of-day billing reports or patient population reports, schedule them to run after the office closes rather than during patient hours
• Audit your alerts. If staff are clicking through 8 pop-up alerts every time they open a chart, those alerts are slowing down the system and slowing down your workflow. Review which alerts are truly necessary and turn off the rest
• Have your IT provider review the server performance (for on-premise installations). The server running your EHR database may need more RAM, storage, or processor resources

6. Background Processes Are Hogging Resources

The problem: Your computers are doing a lot more than just running the EHR. Windows updates, antivirus scans, cloud backup syncing, software update checks, and other background processes all compete for the same resources your EHR needs.

The worst scenario: a Windows update starts downloading in the middle of your busiest clinic morning, consuming your internet bandwidth and CPU resources while your staff wonders why everything just got 10 times slower.

The fix:

• Schedule Windows updates for after hours. Your IT provider can configure update policies so patches download and install overnight — not during patient hours. This is a standard feature of any managed IT service
• Schedule antivirus scans for off-peak times. Full system scans should run during lunch or after hours, not at 8 AM when everyone is logging in. Your endpoint protection software should have scheduling options
• Manage cloud sync applications. If staff are using OneDrive, Dropbox, or Google Drive, large file syncs can eat bandwidth. Your IT team can set these to sync only during off-hours or throttle their bandwidth usage
• Check for startup bloat. Many workstations accumulate programs that auto-launch on startup, slowing down the entire system. Your IT provider can clean up startup items and create a standardized configuration for medical workstations

7. Your Wi-Fi Setup Isn’t Designed for a Medical Practice

The problem: If your practice relies on Wi-Fi for workstations, tablets, or check-in kiosks — and that Wi-Fi is a single consumer-grade router from your internet provider — you’re likely dealing with dead zones, interference, and inconsistent speeds.

Medical offices have unique challenges for Wi-Fi: thick walls between exam rooms, medical equipment that causes interference, and a growing number of connected devices (tablets, printers, vital sign monitors, patient Wi-Fi) all competing for signal.

The fix:

• Get a Wi-Fi survey done. A professional site survey identifies dead zones and interference sources so access points can be placed where they’re actually needed — not just where the cable happened to come out of the wall
• Separate your networks. Your EHR and business systems should be on a different network than your patient/guest Wi-Fi. This improves performance (less congestion) and security (patients can’t accidentally — or intentionally — access your systems). This is also a HIPAA best practice
• Use business-grade access points. Enterprise Wi-Fi solutions from vendors like Ubiquiti, Cisco Meraki, or Aruba are designed for environments like medical offices. They handle more simultaneous connections, offer better range, and can be centrally managed by your IT provider

How to Tell If the Problem Is Your EHR or Your IT Infrastructure

Before you blame the EHR vendor, here’s a quick diagnostic:

The Real Cost of a Slow EHR

It’s easy to dismiss a slow EHR as just an annoyance. But the numbers add up fast:

• If each provider loses 30 seconds per patient interaction due to EHR lag, and they see 25 patients a day, that’s 12.5 minutes per provider per day — over an hour per week of lost productivity
• Longer patient wait times mean lower satisfaction scores, more complaints, and patients who look for another practice
• Staff frustration leads to turnover. Replacing a trained medical assistant in Central Florida costs $3,000-$5,000 in recruitment and training. If a slow system drives good people away, you’re paying for it
• Workarounds create risk. When the EHR is slow, staff start writing things on paper, texting patient information, or using personal devices — all of which create HIPAA compliance problems

Stop Living With a Slow EHR

A slow EHR is not something your practice should just accept. In most cases, the fixes are straightforward — better internet, updated hardware, optimized settings, and proper network management. You don’t need a new EHR system. You need the infrastructure behind it to work properly.

iTech Plus helps medical practices in Tampa, Orlando, Lakeland, and across Central Florida diagnose and fix EHR performance problems — without the disruption of switching platforms. We’ll assess your network, hardware, and configuration, then implement the changes that make the biggest difference for your daily workflow.

Schedule a free EHR performance assessment or call (321) 221-7117 to stop losing time to a slow system.