Specialty-Driven EHRs Make a Comeback Reveals 2016 Black Book Ambulatory Survey

Eight in ten independent physician specialty practices have affirmed their confidence in specialty-distinctive electronic health record systems & robust multi-use EHRs with well-constructed specialty modules, as the more detailed aspects of third generation usability come into play and provider connectivity issues persist. Specialists look to end chronic replacements with flexible cloud-based & specialty-driven EHRs tailored to improve financial, workflow, clinical outcomes & satisfaction.

​​According to 86% of the 11,300 specialist surgical and medical practices surveyed by Black Book™ in Q1/Q2 2016, the single biggest trend in physician technology replacements has swung back to specialty-driven EHRs.

Practices that see a high volume of finite diagnoses have significantly benefited from the templates offered to support a more disparate cross-section of patients who require more individualized documentation according to 93% of all specialists surveyed.

82% of specialists confessed to have scurried to implement their original system before incentive deadlines, and 93% admit to having failed to fully vet their original EHR vendor.

79% also state their meaningful use incentive payments did not offset capital and personnel costs associated with the EHR implementation.

Recent EHR replacement changes have been fueled by specialist workflow and productivity complications that left no time for physicians to customize their generic, multi-use EHR according to 92% of surveyed respondents.

 “Purchasing a specialty-driven system was the most effectual path to resolve ultra-specific functions, quality reporting needs, and produce reimbursement support,” said Doug Brown, Managing Partner of Black Book

29% of independent specialists switched EHRs from their original implementations in favor of a comprehensive multi-use EHR because they perceived limited market-sized  (specialist-specific) EHRs may lead to compromised growth and stability in their practices.

In 2010, 80% of specialist physicians found the system configurability and flexibility was moderately to highly unsatisfactory. “Specialty-specific EHRs didn’t all offer the reliability and flexibility of the large multi-use and primary care-centric EHRs,” said Brown.

Improvements in web-based EHRs including implementations, updates, usability and customization have reversed overall EHR satisfaction in practices of 6-25 physicians from barely 13% meeting or exceed expectations in 2012, to 85% overall contented specialty-driven EHR users in Q2 2016.

Lack of interoperability with other providers, particularly inpatient facilities, continues to be an apprehension for 88% of specialist physicians. "As many specialty-specific EHRs have not fit well within garden-walled, hospital-networked, payer and public health information exchanges , they have been rendered unable to compete with the large multi-specialty EHRs", said Brown.

“The global finding is that specialty-driven, not necessary specialty-specific EHRs are on the fast track for specialist system replacements,” said Brown. “Notably, well-constructed multi-specialty EHRs with strong market presence have accommodated dozens of specialties through flexible functioning and incorporated plugins.”

The bigger issues of interoperability and population health outcomes, quality of care reporting, MACRA and ICD-10 have framed the third generation EHR vendor, and the majority (77%) of specialty practices plan to increase their investment in the advancements made by their current EHR vendor.

“As risk sharing increases, so will the demand for meaningful, vigorous data sharing between specialist providers and payers regardless of the model EHR employed. “ Brown added. “If the interfaces for interoperability between the HIE and stakeholders is too difficult to evaluate and analyze risk, the more likely we will see another round of EHR replacements, cloud and server based.”

85% of specialist physicians agree that first generation EHRs have not lived up to expectations, particularly dissatisfied with cost add-ons, affected workflows, and lost time with patients. 

Current 2016 satisfaction and loyalty among specialty-driven EHRs has improved to 80% moderately-to-highly contented users with their replacement system when comparing their first chosen EHR solution.

48% of all specialty practices that switched EHRs between June 2014 and April 2016 report the financial burden of changing EHRs has put the practice in an unstable financial position. 66% of specialists changing systems report only reviewing cloud-based EHRs in 2016-2017 for the cost factors.

The highest ranked vendors in forty-four medical and surgical specialties the 2016 Black Book Ambulatory EHR user survey for customer satisfaction and loyalty are

Allergy & Immunology:                                                                     CareCloud

Ambulatory Surgery Centers:                                                          SIS Amkai

Anesthesia:                                                                                         Medaxion

Behavioral Health:                                                                                Valant

Cardiology:                                                                                           Allscripts

Chiropractic:                                                                                      Platinum EMR

Colon & Rectal Surgery:                                                                         Cerner

Critical Care Medicine:                                                                       Epic Systems

Dermatology:                                                                                Modernizing Medicine

Diagnostic Imaging/Radiology:                                                          athenahealth

Endocrinology:                                                                                      Cerner

Gastroenterology:                                                                                 gMed

General Surgery:                                                                                 Allscripts

Geriatrics:                                                                                            gEHRimed

Home Health & Hospice:                                     ​                               ​ Axxess

Infectious Disease:                                                                            Epic Systems

Internal Medicine:                                                                            Practice Fusion

Long Term Care:                                                                               AOD Software

Neonatal Perinatal:                                                                                Cerner

Nephrology/Dialysis:                                                                             Acumen

Neurology:                                    ​                               ​                         Greenway

Neurosurgery:                                                                                      McKesson 

Nuclear Medicine:                                                                              Epic Systems

Obstetics Gynecology & Reproductive Medicine:                           Greenway

Oncology & Hematology:                                                           McKesson IKNOWMED

Ophthalmology:                                                                                    SRS Soft

Orthopedic Surgery/Hand/Spine:                                                     IBM Merge

Osteopathic Physicians:                                                                    iPatientCare

Otorhinolaryngology:                                                                  Modernizing Medicine

Pain Management:                                    ​                               ​             Phreesia

Pediatric Surgery:                                                                                    Cerner

Pediatrics:                                                                                               SRS Soft

Physical Medicine & Rehab:                                ​                               ​  Cedaron

Plastic Surgery:                                                                           Modernizing Medicine

Podiatry:                                                                                              Genius Podiatry

Primary Care:                                 ​                                                        Allscripts

Psychiatry:                                                                                             ICA Notes

Pulmonary Medicine:                                                                        TSI Healthcare

Rheumatology:                                                                                       Allscripts

Sleep Centers:                                                                                     TSI Healthcare

Sports Medicine:                                       ​                                              Exscribe

Thoracic & Vascular Surgery:                                                                 e-MDs

Urgent Care & Occupational Medicine:                                              DOCUTAP

Urology:                                                                                                       iSalus

More detailed information is available at http://www.blackbookmarketresearch.com/ambulatory-alternate-site-ehr/

About Black Book™         

Black Book Market Research LLC, provides healthcare IT users, media, investors, analysts, quality minded vendors, and prospective software system buyers, pharmaceutical manufacturers, and other interested sectors of the clinical technology industry with comprehensive comparison data of the industry's top respected and competitively performing technology vendors. The largest user opinion poll of its kind in healthcare IT, Black Book™ collects over 550,000 viewpoints on information technology and outsourced services vendor performance annually. Black Book was founded in 2000, is internationally recognized for over 15 years of customer satisfaction polling, particularly in technology, services, outsourcing and offshoring industries.

Black Book™, its founders, management and/or staff do not own or hold any financial interest in any of the vendors covered and encompassed in this survey, and Black Book reports the results of the collected satisfaction and client experience rankings in publication and to media prior to vendor notification of rating results. Follow Black Book on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/blackbookpolls

For methodology, auditing, resources, comprehensive research and ranking data, see http://blackbookmarketresearch.com

Source: Black Book Market Research

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