Midsize/Large Ambulatory EMR 2022
Healthcare Organizations’ Hierarchy of Needs

Ease of Use/Workflow Is Decidedly Clinics’ Most Pressing Concern

When asked to identify the top three areas their EMR vendor needs to improve, more than 70% of respondents mentioned ease of use/workflows, with 44% of respondents ranking this as their number-one priority. Across all vendors in the report, common ease of use/workflow issues that respondents want addressed include a high number of clicks, irrelevant information displayed within the EMR, lack of specialty-specific functionality, and poor integration that necessitates disruptive screen hopping. Respondents feel improvements in these areas would give clinicians more freedom to interact face-to-face with patients instead of a computer screen.

Top-Tier Solutions

Epic, MEDITECH, and athenahealth Offer Leading EMR Experience for Customers

Epic customers rarely report functionality issues or system bugs as a top concern, and they rate the overall performance and overall product quality very high. Customers praise the solution’s code quality and Epic’s QA process, which ensures that updates roll out reliable, high-quality functionality. However, ease of use/workflow is the top concern for more than half of respondents, with many saying the solution is designed with an inpatient-first focus that overcomplicates workflows in the ambulatory care environment. MEDITECH customers appreciate the Expanse product’s overall stability and highlight the vendor’s progress in consistently developing new functionality. Respondents also say the product’s capabilities have not been oversold, and there are no significant unexpected gaps. Customer feedback includes improving the overall workflow to help users take advantage of the right functionality and navigate care encounters more efficiently. athenahealth respondents are the most satisfied with ease of use and workflows, saying the intuitive layout aligns with users’ expectations and the clinician experience. Specialists would like athena to add specialty content/functionality to the solution to better meet their needs.

Cerner is frequently mentioned by customers as needing to improve workflows. Respondents are very frustrated due to their perception of Cerner primarily focusing on improving the usability of inpatient workflows instead of outpatient workflows. Of the fully rated vendors, Greenway Health has the most customer respondents citing basic product functionality as their number-one priority, with several saying the vendor’s functionality is behind the curve. Notably, customers of Cerner and Greenway Health are less likely to want improved support or relationships, thanks to each vendor’s recent efforts to cultivate better customer relationships and address concerns. NextGen Healthcare respondents commonly feel they aren’t seeing the solution’s full value, indicating this is one of the main factors detracting from their overall experience. While customers generally express satisfaction with the solution, they would like the vendor to better assist with the setup and training. This help would improve system usability and allow organizations to realize the full value of the product. 

Support & Relationship Are Top Concerns for eClinicalWorks & Allscripts Customers

Phone and web support are significant challenges for many eClinicalWorks and Allscripts customers, and a large portion want their vendors to improve the support before focusing on any other aspect of the solution. eClinicalWorks customers are the most dissatisfied, saying the vendor is not responsive to tickets and issues, does not keep promises around product fixes/resolutions, and does not have support representatives who know the product well enough to assist when problems arise. Reported challenges for Allscripts customers (both Professional EHR and TouchWorks EHR) include outsourced support, a lack of proactivity in identifying and solving issues, and a lack of personal touch, leading customers to believe Allscripts is not a true partner in customer success. Customers note that support has always been problematic but that frustration has grown as the outsourced support has become less knowledgeable and more backlogged. Regarding the Allscripts Professional product, customers are frustrated with system slowness, rigidity in the workflows, code-quality issues resulting from problematic updates, and a significant number of general usability issues.

Epic & MEDITECH Best at Enabling Patient-Centered Care; eClinicalWorks & Allscripts TouchWorks Customers Feel Solutions Were Oversold

About This Report

Each year, KLAS interviews thousands of healthcare professionals about the IT solutions and services their organizations use. For this report, interviews were conducted over the last 12 months using KLAS’ standard quantitative evaluation for healthcare software, which is composed of 16 numeric ratings questions and 4 yes/no questions, all weighted equally. Combined, the ratings for these questions make up the overall performance score, which is measured on a 100-point scale.

In addition to the questions in the standard software evaluation, we also asked ambulatory care organizations several supplemental questions specific to the ambulatory EMR market. These questions asked respondents to identify the top three areas their EMR vendor should focus on now, along with how well their EMR vendor’s technology supports patient-centered care.