Four Out of Five Community Hospitals Pin HITECH Hopes on Current Electronic Medical Records

    OREM, UT, April 07, 2011 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Electronic medical records (EMRs) are garnering deeper use in the community hospital scene, and nearly all have been certified HITECH-ready by an official certification body. Nevertheless, a fifth of these hospitals plan to switch EMR products within the next couple of years -- even this close to meaningful use (MU) deadlines -- according to a new report by KLAS.

For the new report, "Community Hospital EMRs Maturing for Meaningful Use," KLAS interviewed more than 500 healthcare professionals about their experience with various EMR systems. Of respondents, 80 percent described confidence in their EMRs, even if the hospitals themselves hadn't achieved deep adoption.

"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."

More surprising, according to the report, is that a full 20 percent of those interviewed plan to switch EMR vendors in the next couple of years. (By comparison, only about half that many current EMR clients have come live on new products in the last two years.) Though non-MU-certified products appear to be most at risk of abandonment, providers appear to doubt some certified products as well.

"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," Pitcher explained. "MS4 customers also fear that Siemens has an unclear go-forward strategy."

In "Community Hospital EMRs Maturing for Meaningful Use," McKesson Paragon took the top slot with a score of 81.5 out of 100, followed by MEDITECH C/S EMR for versions 5.x and lower (79.3) and Cerner Millennium PowerChart (73.1). This report also highlights CPSI, Healthland, HMS, and Siemens Soarian products. Trending data was included in the report for Allscripts Sunrise Clinical Manager, Keane InSight, McKesson Horizon Expert Orders/Doc., and QuadraMed CPR products--as well as for the legacy systems MEDITECH MAGIC Patient Care Inquiry and QuadraMed Affinity.

For more information about the community hospital CIS market, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of measured vendors, "Community Hospital EMRs Maturing for Meaningful Use" is available to healthcare providers online for a significant discount off the standard retail price. To purchase, healthcare providers and vendors can visit www.KLASresearch.com/reports.

KLAS is a research firm specializing in monitoring and reporting the performance of healthcare vendors. KLAS' mission is to improve delivery, by independently measuring vendor performance for the benefit of our healthcare provider partners, consultants, investors, and vendors. Working together with executives from over 4500 hospitals and over 2500 clinics, KLAS delivers timely reports, trends, and statistics, which provide a solid overview of vendor performance in the industry. KLAS measures performance of software, professional services, and medical equipment vendors. For more information, go to www.KLASresearch.com, email [email protected], or call 1-800-920-4109 to speak with a KLAS representative. Follow KLAS on Twitter at www.twitter.com/KLASresearch.

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