There are ambulatory EHR vendors experiencing success on both coasts, according to a new article in TechTarget.
Here are five key trends:
1. There are several big players dominating the EHR market, but ambulatory EHR vendors are positioned to do business with lower cost systems.
2. Amazing Charts, based in Rohde Island, uses cloud-based EHRs designed for small physician practices. On the other side of the country Practice Fusion uses the cloud-based approach but has made EHRs "essentially free" to customers and targets larger practices.
3. The small practice EHR companies are able to keep costs low because there aren't costs associated with labs, pharmacies and imaging centers as there are for the larger facilities and health systems, according to the report.
4. Massachusetts is home to two other significant players in the ambulatory EHR market; athenahealth and eClinicalWorks. The ambulatory EHRs were featured recently on the HIT Squad podcast. The most widely-used EHR at physician practices, based on the Medscape EHR Report 2016: Physicians Rate Top EHRs, were:
• eClinicalWorks: 12 percent
• Practice Fusion: 8 percent
• NextGen: 8 percent
• Allscripts Professional: 6 percent
• Greenway: 6 percent
• Athenahealth: 5 percent
• Centricity: 4 percent
• Epic: 4 percent
• E-MDs: 2 percent
• Amazing Charts: 2 percent
• MEDENT: 2 percent
5. The Medscape report found 91 percent of physicians are currently using EHRs and 33 percent report they are in an independent practice with its own EHR system; 63 percent worked in a hospital or health system with an EHR.