Over 200 Acute Care Hospitals implemented new Electronic Medical Records (EMR) software in 2017 reveals the new KLAS report. These EMR and Practice Management (PM) software adoptions are being made by small hospitals with 1-200 bedding capacity because they need to exchange healthcare information with nearby hospitals. The healthcare providers also desire new and more innovative features with flexible financing options offered by the top EMR vendors.

The small hospitals are craving for new technology but are restricted due to budget constraints. This is the reason why these small hospitals chose less expensive and affordable EMR & EHR software options including athenahealth, MEDITECH, Cerner, EPIC, Allscripts etc.

5 Small Hospital EMR Software Market Trends

The recent KLAS revealed the top five small hospital EMR system market trends that impacted buying energy in 2018:

athenahealth EMR Software capitalization on Small Hospitals

athenahealth’s inpatient EHR solution continued to gain traction, garnering more contract wins among small hospitals than any other solution. The cloud-based EMR software platform is really attractive to the small hospitals and practices, which need negligible IT footprints and up-front implementation costs.

MEDITECH EMR Software Increased Market Shares

The year 2017 was the first time in 3 years that MEDITECH Electronic Health Records (EHR) software acquired a net increase in US hospital EMR system market share. These early signs of renewed energy are driven primarily by Expanse, MEDITECH’s newly christened web-based platform.

Allscripts Professional EHR Software Sustains Losses in All Inpatient Platforms

Allscripts almost doubled their acute care EMR systems customer base with the acquisition of McKesson’s Paragon and Horizon EMRs in 2017. KLAS notes that both solutions have been losing customers for years and these losses are no surprise given Horizon’s sunset status and McKesson’s consistent underdevelopment of Paragon, most significantly their inability to deliver an integrated ambulatory solution.

More notable are the losses sustained by Sunrise Clinical Manager (SCM), Allscripts’ go-forward solution for larger hospitals and organizations. The market share of Sunrise Clinical Manager (SCM) had been comparatively stable for a number of years. But in 2017, two large multihospital organizations changed their SCM hospitals to Epic, looking to simplify their IT substructure and combine to an incorporated solution.

Cerner EMR software gathered most wins in Acute Care

Cerner was the EHR system that gathered the most acute care wins out of all EMR vendors. However, they lost 25 hospitals, due to customer calibration and satisfaction. The report notes that Cerner’s long-time patient accounting challenges continue to be a primary driver for healthcare organizations choosing not to select Cerner. On the positive side, Cerner offers the most flexible pricing model and direct contracting.

Epic EHR software gains the Largest Net Growth in Acute Care

Epic EMR system received lesser wins but sustained no losses, and that gave Epic the highest net market share growth. The key things that led to the rise of positive market share growth include Epic’s strong integration and constant development making them an attractive choice for larger health systems and hospitals. The report did cite preliminary cost and lack of direct contracting in Epic’s community model as a prospective concern for customers.