Ambulatory EHR market predicted to hit $3B by 2013

The physician practice market, not expectedly, appears to be accelerating in terms of terms of purchases of electronic health record (EHR) systems, according to a report from the research firm, CapSite. More than half of the 1,300 independent and hospital-owned practices the firm interviewed said they anticipate buying a system within the next two years.

Of the practices not purchasing new systems, 70 percent said they already have an EHR system that can supporting meaningful use criteria under current federal provisions.

Overall, purchasing related to ambulatory care is expected to more than double from last year's levels, according to the report. Another 63 percent of respondents said they will replace their current management system with an integrated practice management/EHR system.

And, despite high EHR purchasing activity over the past two years, the market is not expected to slow down any time soon, said CapSite Senior Vice President and General Manager Gino Johnson, in a statement. Current projections place the market at an excess of $3 billion for ambulatory EHRs and practice management systems through 2013.

As for vendors, Allscripts and eClinicalWorks lead the "vendor mind share" when being considered for ambulatory EHR purchase by practices of one or two physicians, according to Health Data Management. In the other size categories, leaders were Allscripts and NextGen (three to 10 physicians); Allscripts, NextGen and eClinicalWorks (11 to 25 physicians); Epic and Allscripts (26 to 100 physicians); and Epic (more than 100 physicians) by a large margin.

For more information:
- see the Health Data Management article
- view the CapSite announcement