MEDITECH, Epic Lead Small Hospital EHR Vendor Satisfaction

MEDITECH, Epic, and Cerner address many organization challenges and provide the best practices to small hospitals, leading to high EHR vendor satisfaction, according to a recent KLAS Performance Report.    

EHR vendors and health organizations can influence EHR satisfaction in many ways. Health organizations and clinicians can grade EHR vendors for technology and support quality, the KLAS researchers said. Still, vendors can also set accurate expectations, address potential challenges, and utilize resources to overcome relationship and product issues.

Because small hospitals have limited budgets and resources, these hospitals need to choose the best EHR vendor to minimize their unique issues and help maintain valuable resources.

KLAS surveyed 180 respondents from small community hospitals to evaluate the top EHR challenges and which EHR vendor best practices help reduce these challenges.

Consistent satisfaction was a top indicator of EHR vendor success.

MEDITECH topped the overall performance score distribution chart. Thirty percent of MEDITECH respondents were very satisfied, 57 percent were satisfied, and 13 percent were dissatisfied.

Twenty percent of Epic respondents were very satisfied with the vendor, while 61 percent were satisfied, and 19 percent were dissatisfied. Cerner was the only other vendor whose respondents were nearly 20 percent very satisfied, while 50 percent were satisfied, and 33 percent were dissatisfied.

MEDITECH led the way with a roughly 83 overall performance score, based on a 100-point scale.

“MEDITECH customers say strong collaboration from the vendor helps address challenges,” KLAS explained. “The most successful MEDITECH customers budget for training and additional implementation resources to help with interfacing.”

Although MEDITECH ranked the highest, customers still reported challenges. They noted slow product development, poor user interface for patient-facing tools, and the high cost of MEDITECH Expanse for its legacy customers.

However, its respondents said the vendor has a deep focus on EHR training. MEDITECH helps its customers invest in health IT resources to optimize solutions while also budgeting for training and implementation.

“With the release of Expanse, customers feel MEDITECH has provided updated technology and instituted a more prescriptive approach to implementations and guidance, leading to MEDITECH customers being the most likely to report satisfaction,” wrote KLAS.

Epic narrowly trailed MEDITECH with an overall performance score of 81.

“Epic’s robust technology and interoperability are key drivers of customer satisfaction,” KLAS wrote.

Epic respondents said the vendor set realistic hosting expectations, ensured the host contract fit the organization’s needs, and ensured access to top Epic hosts to collaborate.

On the other hand, Epic customers noted less direct interaction with the vendor, less input into product customization, and a lack of training and slow response time.

“Epic and Cerner lead in performance among large organizations but don’t deliver as consistently for smaller hospitals,” KLAS wrote about Epic and Cerner. “Their approaches to the community market—hub-and spoke relationship (Epic) and shared server (Cerner)—create less flexibility and more opportunities for misalignment between the technology and customers’ individual priorities.”

Cerner finished with the third-highest overall performance score at roughly 80.

Customers want material changes to the shared version of CommunityWorks that requires working with the vendor. Respondents also said implementation and ongoing training are both inadequate.

However, Cerner customers said the vendor sets realistic expectations and the internal end-user training is adequate. The vendor also provides personalization and optimization, users said.

“Cerner’s community customers appreciate having a broad technology stack and a direct relationship with Cerner,” KLAS said.

Allscripts customers rated the vendor a 50 in overall performance, which was the lowest of the top EHR vendors in this category.

Allscripts respondents said the vendor is not proactive with product guidance or workflow improvement, resulting in low usability. Customers also reported implementation difficulty.

Although Allscripts scored below a 50, customers said the vendor invests in end-user training and it meets organizational goals by working directly with the client.  

“Small hospitals using Allscripts Sunrise Acute Care report a middle-of-the-road experience,” KLAS noted. “The technology is fairly robust, but customers say Allscripts is not proactive in helping them optimize the solution or resolve gaps. Allscripts recently announced Sunrise Community Care, an offering specifically for small hospitals; KLAS has not interviewed any live organizations.”

This report follows the 2021 Best in KLAS Rankings, where Epic Systems was awarded the top overall software suite for the 11th straight year. Overall, Epic earned 11 awards, including the top overall physician practice vendor.