athenahealth and eClinicalWorks: New EMR Market Entrants
I have the responsibility and privilege at KLAS to answer many providers' inbound questions around the acute care EMR market. Although I get asked about many EMRs and market trends, there is no doubt that an energy hot spot is the two new acute care EMR market entrants: athenahealth and eClinicalWorks.
I'll be talking through some provider FAQs and our research thus far around these two vendors and their acute care EMRs.
Provider Question #1
How did athenahealth and eClinicalWorks enter the acute care EMR market?
athenahealth officially entered the US acute care EMR market by acquiring RazorInsights in mid-January 2015, followed by the purchase of webOMR (the EMR platform developed by Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center) just a few weeks later. Through these acquisitions, athenahealth brought on approximately two dozen hospital customers (former RazorInsights hospital customers) and has been signing new hospital customers since then. The go-forward inpatient product (which customers report is currently being coded to become a fully integrated enterprise application on the athenahealth platform) is called athenaOne for Hospitals and Health Systems.
eClinicalWorks officially entered the US acute care EMR market in early 2016 with the formal announcement of the partnership with Tidelands Health. This announcement builds upon eClinicalWorks' previous inpatient EMR installs internationally. The inpatient product, called eClinicalWorks 10i, is self-developed and built (not acquired). Since this announcement, there have been other hospitals that have signed with eClinicalWorks, and many others that have inquired about eClinicalWorks' inpatient product and its progress in the market.
Provider Question #2
How many hospitals have purchased athenahealth's and eClinicalWorks' acute care EMRs?
Every year, KLAS validates the hospitals that contracted for a new EMR in the previous calendar year and reports the findings. The most recent report published reflects all contracts signed in the 2015 calendar year. In 2015, KLAS validated that 24 hospitals signed a contract for athenaOne for Hospitals and Health Systems, and 2 hospitals signed a contract for eClinicalWorks 10i.
KLAS is currently in the process of validating contracts that have been signed thus far in 2016. And even though we can't disclose specific numbers until the official publication of the report (scheduled for early 2017), we can state that there has been much activity impacting the acute care EMR market share of both of these vendors.
Provider Question #3
Which types and sizes of hospitals are considering these vendors, and what are some of providers' reasons for doing so?
The large majority of athenahealth's new hospital contracts are coming from hospitals with fewer than 50 beds (with the announced partnership with University of Toledo Medical Center being the largest). As KLAS has validated and interviewed these hospitals that have recently contracted with athenahealth, many providers have pointed to athenahealth's unique cost structure (% of collections), innovative web-based architecture, and solid reputation in the market around revenue cycle as drivers for consideration.
For eClinicalWorks, although fewer contracts were signed in 2015, the hospitals that did so were more diverse in size, ranging from small to around 300 beds. Early insights from these customers noted that the total-cost-of-ownership comparisons, initial physician feedback on the EMR, and eClinicalWorks' reputation in the market for being and innovator and developer were all in eClinicalWorks' favor.
Here at KLAS, we look forward to watching the activity surrounding these vendors in the acute care EMR market space and validating their performance as they continue to mature.
Do you have specific questions around this market or around these two vendors specifically? Please feel free to reach out.