Community Hospitals Think Other EMR Grass May Be Greener

One fifth of all community hospitals currently using EMRs plan to switch products within the next couple of years, despite fast-approaching Meaningful Use deadlines, according to a new report by KLAS, Community Hospital EMRs Maturing for Meaningful Use.

“McKesson and Meditech C/S clients are most confident that their vendors will get them to Stage 1 of MU by 2013,” commented Paul Pitcher, KLAS research director and author of the report. “Meditech customers attribute this confidence to their systems’ reliability and robust clinical capabilities, while McKesson customers cited solid partnerships and rapid delivery of new technology, especially CPOE.”

“Healthland and Siemens MS4 customers are least confident in their vendors, largely due to struggles with clinician adoption and lack of confidence in the vendors’ development lifecycle,” he continued. “MS4 customers also fear that Siemens has an unclear go-forward strategy.”

In the report, McKesson took the top slot with a score of 81.5 out of 100, followed by Meditech (79.3) and Cerner (73.1). This report also highlights CPSI, Healthland, HMS, and Siemens products.

For the report, KLAS interviewed more than 500 healthcare professionals about their experience with various EMR systems. Of the respondents, 80 percent described confidence in their EMRs, even if the hospitals themselves hadn’t achieved deep adoption.