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Small Practice Ambulatory EMR/PM (10 or Fewer Physicians) 2019
Building Strong Foundations for Customer Success
Author
Aaron Gleave
Author
Alex McIntosh
As healthcare has moved beyond meaningful use, small practices have begun to expect more from their vendors and to look for EMRs that do morethan meet basic regulatory requirements. As a result, EMR/PM satisfaction among small practices (10 or fewer physicians) has varied greatly over thepast year—scores for a number of vendors have swung more than 10 percentage points (some positively, some negatively). To explore what the futureholds for this market, KLAS spoke to hundreds of small practice customers about their EMR/PM experiences and needs and also interviewed executivesand representatives from AdvancedMD, Allscripts, Aprima, athenahealth, Azalea Health, CareCloud, Cerner, CureMD, eMDs, Greenway Health, Kareo,NextGen, Quest Diagnostics, and Virence Health (GE Healthcare) to find out how these vendors plan to increase customer satisfaction going forward.
NextGen Healthcare, CureMD, and Aprima Most Aligned to Deliver Customer Success
When asked to name the top things EMR/PM vendors should focus on, small practices overwhelmingly say that before addressing more advanced issues, their vendors need to first figure out how to meet small practices’ needs for product functionality, product usability, and vendor support and guidance. NextGen Healthcare is the only vendor whose self-reported priorities align completely with this desired focus, though responses from Aprima and CureMD also show alignment in many areas.
This high alignment contributes to these three vendors’ having higher weighted overall satisfaction scores (weighted based on small practices’ top priorities) and leads many customers to view them less as technology suppliers and more as partners who deliver a strong foundation for future client success.
Practices Want CareCloud, Cerner, and eMDs to Focus on the Basics
In their interviews with KLAS, CareCloud, Cerner, and eMDs all emphasized that delivering new technology (bells and whistles) is their number one focus. Such features can be beneficial once practices’ basic needs for functionality, usability, and support are met, but the fact that CareCloud, Cerner, and eMDs have lower customer satisfaction highlights a misalignment between what small practices need and what these vendors are focused on. Virence Health (formerly GE Healthcare) is relatively aligned to what small practices need, and customers report cautious optimism under the new leadership. However, GE Healthcare had historically failed to deliver on promises regarding improvements to Centricity Practice Solution, leading to low satisfaction.
AdvancedMD and Greenway Health Quickly Becoming Top-Performing Contenders
Over the past year, customer satisfaction with AdvancedMD and Greenway Health (Intergy customers only) has risen sharply, driven largely by positive changes in support and relationships. AdvancedMD customers have noticed improvements in nearly every metric KLAS measures, reporting the biggest improvements in money’s worth and training quality. Clients are especially pleased with the PM functionality, using terms such as “fantastic” and “streamlined,” and say the functionality has improved how their practices operate. While clients feel AdvancedMD still has room to improve, they have taken notice of the vendor’s efforts to enhance the overall experience. Greenway Health has made an about-face recently, announcing that Intergy, not PrimeSuite, will be their go-forward platform. Intergy clients have taken note of efforts from Greenway Health to improve, reporting increased satisfaction with the vendor’s support and client relationships as well as their implementations and training.
Virence Health and Cerner See Significant Declines
Over the past year, Virence Health (Centricity Practice Solution) and Cerner customers have reported the steepest declines in overall satisfaction, with the vendors’ scores falling 11 and 6 points, respectively. Though satisfaction with Virence Health has declined in all categories, customers report particular dissatisfaction with the vendor’s inability to keep promises, drive tangible outcomes, and deliver a product that isn’t buggy or missing functionality. Cerner customers have seen declines in the support experience all around and have had poor experiences with implementations/upgrades, nickel-and-diming, and Cerner’s training, which clients feel is not comprehensive enough to meet their needs.
More Investment in Training Needed for Better Provider Success
Feedback from more than 32,000 physicians and advanced practice providers (collected through KLAS’ Arch Collaborative initiative) shows that training is one of the leading predictors of future EHR success and satisfaction. This indicates that not all user dissatisfaction with EMR/PM solutions can be attributed to the solution itself. Vendors interviewed for this small practice report echo this finding, with 6 of the interviewed 14 saying that they feel customers underinvest in education. One vendor executive shared, “I think what customers do is underinvest in education as the product evolves. . . . They want to implement it . . . and move on.” This lack of continual EHR learning has a direct and adverse effect on providers’ ability to document effectively and often leads to dissatisfaction with the EHR as well as the vendor.
Designer
Natalie Jamison
Project Manager
Storie Smith
This material is copyrighted. Any organization gaining unauthorized access to this report will be liable to compensate KLAS for the full retail price. Please see the KLAS DATA USE POLICY for information regarding use of this report. © 2024 KLAS Research, LLC. All Rights Reserved. NOTE: Performance scores may change significantly when including newly interviewed provider organizations, especially when added to a smaller sample size like in emerging markets with a small number of live clients. The findings presented are not meant to be conclusive data for an entire client base.