Epic ranks at the top of enterprise vendors offering EDIS – Emergency Department Information Systems, according to a September 2017 report from research firm KLAS.

KLAS points to Epic’s consistently excellent support, relationships and customer satisfaction among the factors.  

“Organizations using Epic have significantly higher overall satisfaction than those using other enterprise vendors, despite lower workflow satisfaction compared to customers of best-of-breed vendors,”

[Also: Emergency departments drop best-of-breed technology]

It’s not always a positive experience.

Customers complain about excessive and repetitive clicking, back and forth navigation and upgrades that add more clicks.

However, KLAS notes users admit that these steps/clicks have helped improve patient safety.

Epic’s main competitor, Cerner, does not fare as well as its rival, having fallen short on the usability front, according to KLAS.

“Cerner has made fewer impactful usability improvements than any other vendor,” KLAS researchers wrote.

“While Cerner continues to gain new ED customers and delivers a better workflow for ED physicians than MEDITECH or Allscripts, researchers wrote, “users feel hampered by inconsistent training, reactive support, and a lack of the kinds of innovation that could improve physician satisfaction.”

Cerner has made efforts to reduce clicks through two tools meant to streamline documentation within provider workflows – Dynamic Documentation and PowerNote – but respondents report still being dissatisfied with the inefficiency and burden of clinical documentation.

Allscripts users feel hampered by inconsistent training, reactive support, and a lack of the kinds of innovation that could improve physician satisfaction, KLAS said.

Best of breed vendors are showing their mettle, according to KLAS.

“For years, best-of-breed vendors have shown that it is possible to deliver an EDIS that meets provider organizations’ needs and expectations for usability and functionality,” KLAS notes.

But the market is shifting to enterprise vendors. KLAS suggests those vendors will have to step up their game.

“As the market shifts and enterprise vendors play a larger and larger role, they will need to keep up with the standards set by the high-functioning, best-of-breed solutions,” KLAS writes.

For example, Wellsoft has been the Emergency Department Best in KLAS winner for nine out of the past 10 years, delivering “an extremely consistent performance and one of the best support experiences in healthcare IT.”

T-System and Picis have also had consistently high levels of satisfaction in all areas KLAS measures.

As for Meditech, it’s dealing with “workarounds, system lag time, a confusing layout, and functionality geared more toward an inpatient environment.”

Twitter: @Bernie_HITN
Email the writer: bernie.monegain@himssmedia.com