2013 has been billed as the year of EHR dissatisfaction, with up to 23 percent of physician practices reporting they were trading in their current EHR system for a new brand altogether, and, according to a new Black Book Rankings report, there were only a handful of vendors that came out on top. 

 

The survey finds that providers switching to new EHR systems were turning to Practice Fusion, Care360 Quest, Vitera, Cerner, Greenway, ChartLogic, GE Healthcare and athenahealth — all vendors who have risen to the top of the replacement market satisfaction polls, officials note.  

 

"Regularly, at least two of these eight vendors were on the short lists of 88 percent of the current replacement market buyers surveyed," said Doug Brown, managing Partner of Black Book, in a news release. 

 

[See also: EHR users unhappy, many switching.]

 

Seven others — Allscripts, AmazingCharts, eClinicalWorks, Kareo, McKesson and NextGen — also received top rankings in six of seven 2013 Black Book client experience surveys, Black Book officials note. 

 

"EHR system shifters now position to reallocate more than $5 billion in sales as the unstable vendor marketplace begins to get agitated," said Doug Brown, managing partner of Black Book, in a news release. 

 

Eighty-one percent of survey respondents who indicated they were ditching their current systems said they were on track to replace their EHR within the next year; some 11 percent said they were unsure, according to the report. 

 

The study is a follow-up assessment on the status of electronic health record users, all of which indicated deal-breaking dissatisfaction with the current vendors.

 

EHR users polled in the original survey had cited numerous cases of software vendors underperforming enough to lose crucial market share, with vendor solutions often struggling to keep up.

 

Most concerning to current EHR users were unmet requests for sophisticated interfaces with other practice programs, complex connectivity and networking schemes, pacing with accountable care progresses and the rapid EHR adoption of mobile devices, the original survey found.

 

Out of those EHR users considering a system switch, 80 percent said the solution does not meet the practices' individual needs; 79 percent indicated that the medical practice had not adequately assessed the group's needs before choosing the EHR; 77 percent of respondents cited solution design as ill-fitted for their medical practice or specialty; and 44 percent said vendors have been unresponsive to requests. 

 

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