In the year since we unveiled the results of Healthcare IT News' inaugural EHR Satisfaction Survey, the nature and perception of electronic health records has changed. So too has much of what the providers who use EHRs and the vendors who make them think is important.

But many of the complaints about the systems remain the same. For instance, just like in the first survey, one of the most common pieces of anecdotal feedback was a variation of the following sentiment: "Too many clicks!"

Once again, we sought those of our readers who manage EHRs every day to tell us how they really feel. We reached out to CIOs, CTOs, VPs of IT, CMIOs, CNIOs, CSOs and more – in addition to directors of radiology, lab services, cardiology, oncology, pathology and other clinical chiefs.

We sent the survey to professionals at hospitals, health systems, academic medical centers, ambulatory care facilities, group practices, long-term care facilities, the Department of Defense, the VA and other provider sites.

Then we asked them to weigh in on an array of features: interoperability with clinical systems and medical devices, interface and design, quality of installation support, quality of ongoing support services, security features and user experience.

The 340 who responded did not hold back when assessing the strengths and weaknesses of their systems. They cheered good UX design and robust security settings, but they jeered at intrusive alerts and elusive interoperability.

[Comparison chart: How readers rated their EHR in 2016 vs. 2015]

After tallying the vendors that had a critical mass of reviews, that left the same nine companies as in 2015: Allscripts, Cerner, eClinicalWorks, Epic, GE Healthcare, NextGen, McKesson, MEDITECH and Siemens. The difference this year was the order in which they were ranked.

Except, that is, for the number one spot: Once again, Epic was voted the all-around best EHR – not just in overall satisfaction (with a score of 7.7 out of 10), but in every category our readers rated. Cerner was a close second in the overall scoring, with GE Healthcare ranked third. Allscripts, eClincialWorks, MEDITECH, Siemens, McKesson and NextGen rounded out the list.

Here's what readers said about each.

Click on the buttons below to read what readers said about their vendors and view the scores.

Epic

Overall Satisfaction: 7.7