Despite recent gains in EHR adoption (nationwide rates recently passed 75 percent for office-based physicians), small practices, particularly those of five providers or less, lag behind the rest of the nation. EHR adoption rates for these practices hovered around 50 percent in 2012.
Resources are the obvious obstacle. Many first generation EHR systems required physicians to create a dedicated hosting infrastructure,
a significant capital investment that includes multiple hardware purchases in addition to the EHR software license. Even with Meaningful Use
incentives, the total cost of ownership for such a system was often more than small and medium sized practices were willing to invest.
However, in the last few years the market has shifted. More EHRs are now geared toward the needs of small and medium sized practices,
particularly in the implementation phase. Instead of requiring physicians to build their own hosting infrastructure, many vendors now
offer cloud-based products that physicians can easily access through the web, across devices.
But even with the increased number of cloudbased EHRs, small practices must still exercise caution when choosing a product. When the
HITECH Act passed in 2009, the EHR market was flooded with options, many of which didn’t offer the required functionality to meet
Meaningful Use, or at least made it difficult to do so. The usability of many EHRs remains in question as well, leaving a significant portion
of the physician community disgruntled toward the concept of electronic medical records in general.
EHR systems have improved in recent years, and this guide showcases some of the best options for small practices in terms of usability, functionality, and price. All of these products are ONC-ATB certified, and can meet Meaningful Use Criteria. The options to deploy
a patient portal or practice management or outsourced billing are also highlighted.
Scores
To best represent the current market satisfaction with each of these products, we’ve created a satisfaction score. This is an average calculated from reputable reviews from a variety of sources, including TechnologyAdvice.com. The functionality score signifies the power of the system, e.g., its number of features relative to the others on this list, and in the general EHR market. At the end of this guide, you’ll find a table comparing the functionality of these four systems based on a common set of features.
