KLAS: Track Record Trumping Price In Ambulatory EMR Purchasing

As EMRs continue their transformation from nice-to-have to stakes-to-play, physician practices are less willing to take chances in exchange for big bargains, especially the second time around, according to a new KLAS report, Ambulatory EMR 2012: Market Splitting Under Adoption Pressure.

“Some providers are changing vendors simply because their whole organization is moving onto one platform. But the real sad story is the providers who are changing vendors because they can’t get the support they need or the functionality they expected,” said Mark Wagner, report author and ambulatory EMR expert. “Especially with Meaningful Use, those providers that are looking to replace their current system feel they can’t take chances anymore. They don’t care as much about cost; they just want a good system.”

Findings from more than 300 prospective ambulatory EMR buyers show that replacements are up this year from 30 percent to 50 percent, according to KLAS.

Vendors such as athenahealth, eClinicalWorks, e-MDs, Epic, and Greenway are gaining mindshare, stated KLAS, and traditional ambulatory EMR favorites Allscripts, Cerner, GE, NextGen, McKesson, and Vitera (Sage) are juggling resources as provider need grows.

Most small practices are looking for their first EMR, while larger practices typically already have an EMR solution and are often consolidating many disparate systems by replacing their EMR vendor, the organization found. The three most replaced vendors in the study are Allscripts, GE, and McKesson — “primarily due to complaints about sinking support or lagging product development.” Vendors winning most attention from wary second-time buyers were eClinicalWorks, Epic, and Greenway.

For the report, KLAS analyzed overall provider opinion but also dissected results by practice size to understand the differences in vendor performance noted by practices with 1-10, 11-75, and more than 75 physicians.