Smaller hospitals ditch EHRs--but still not happy

External pressure is forcing small hospitals to transition to different electronic health records systems, according to a new brief from KLAS Research.

The brief, entitled "Community Hospitals Market Share 2012: Small Hospitals, Big Changes," reported that "the year 2011 saw incredible churn in the community hospitals EMR market," according to KLAS' Dec. 17 announcement. More than 200 small hospitals (fewer than 200 beds) changed or replaced their EHR system that year. One of the primary reasons for this change is due to economic pressures on the hospitals, causing them to join integrated delivery systems and adopting the EHR of the larger organization.  

However, many of the hospitals are dissatisfied with their new system. "One in three community providers who have gone live with their EMR in the past 12 months feels they made the wrong decision," said Paul Pitcher, research director. This dissatisfaction is causing newer vendors to make inroads into this market, including NextGen, Prognosis, QuadraMed and RazorInsights.

Epic was the vendor with the most overall "wins" for 2011, followed by Healthland, Cerner and CPSI, according to the brief.

These results dovetail in part with KLAS' report earlier this year for large hospitals. EPIC and Cerner were the most popular systems for hospitals with more than 200 beds, with more than 80 percent of newly contracted hospitals, but QuadraMed lost market share.

The results also mirror a recent study by the American Academy of Family Physicians, which found that only 38 percent of physicians were highly satisfied with their EHRs.

To learn more:
- read the press release
- learn about the large hospital study