With more hospitals leveraging the Stark relaxations to underwrite EMRs for local practices, it’s incumbent for CIOs to know that market inside and out. Developing a sound short-list of vendors to offer the docs is serious business, as CIOs need to balance physician choice with integration issues. To learn more about the buying trends in the ambulatory EMR space, healthsystemCIO.com editor Anthony Guerra chatted with KLAS General Manager of Ambulatory Research Mark Wagner, who recently authored a report entitled: “Ambulatory EMR Buying: A Roller Coaster Ride in 2010.” For the report, KLAS interviewed more than 370 healthcare providers who plan to choose an EMR solution in the next two years.
Podcast (21:07)[audio:One-on-One-W-Mark-Wagner.mp3] Specific findings of the report include the following:
- Physician practices are considering an ever-increasing number of software vendors
- Despite this, established vendors Allscripts, NextGen and eClinicalWorks still maintain the most mindshare in the ambulatory EMR market, as those vendors are considered in one of every three purchase decisions.
- Which ambulatory EMR providers are considering varies significantly depending on practice size; however, some overall trends were evident:
- Allscripts EMR products (including Enterprise, Professional, Misys and MyWay) are being collectively considered in 35 percent of purchase decisions, more often than any other vendor’s products.
- Followed by NextGen (considered in 32 percent of planned purchases)
- Followed by eClinicalWorks (29 percent).
- Other vendors highlighted in the report include athenahealth, Cerner, e-MDs, Eclipsys, Epic, GE, Greenway, McKesson and Sage.
- Among providers planning an EMR purchase, nearly a third are replacing an existing solution.
- Half of the providers planning a switch are doing so because their current EMR lacks functionality or certification — in short, because they are not viable go-forward strategies in today’s ARRA-focused healthcare environment.
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