They key to a successful medical practice is effective and efficient patient care. For 9 out of 10 US doctors, that has meant a recent transition from paper charts to electronic health records.
Electronic health record software is a digital file cabinet for patient charts. EHRs store medical history, medications, lab results, treatment plans and even patient billing information in a centralized database.
While there are hundreds of EHR software vendors, just two (Epic and Cerner) are used by about half of US hospitals. But software is always changing and smaller medical practices may find other top vendors best meet their needs.
The top 6 most popular EHR software solutions in 2018
This list reflects Capterra’s ranking, which uses a unique algorithm that considers each product’s active customer count, user count and social presence. Capterra is a blog and research site that helps businesses find software. There are many other lists that may rank EHR vendors in different orders.
1. eClinicalWorks
“eClinicalWorks is a privately held leader in healthcare IT, providing comprehensive EHR and Practice Management solutions used by more than 850,000 providers in more than 20 countries.”
Reviewers like that the software is easy to navigate, customizable and well designed to support larger practices with many providers. Negative reviews complain about poor customer support and a clunky interface.
2. Allscripts
“Allscripts Professional EHR is the preeminent solution for small to mid-size physician practices that want to provide safer patient care, streamline operations and improve revenue. Professional works in ACOs, Patient-Centered Medical Homes and Federally Qualified Health Centers. Professional is the industry’s first fully-certified 2015 edition technology enabling clinicians to meet the requirements of government initiatives such as Meaningful Use and MACRA.”
Positive reviews say Allscripts is easy to use with a simple layout. Others say the the EHR is expensive, glitchy, poorly designed and requires a lot of build-out prior to use.
3. Cerner
“Cerner’s PowerChart Ambulatory EHR ensures the right clinicians have the right information at the right time and place to make the best possible decisions. We believe that with information technology and coordination, health care becomes safer, more effective and available to communities worldwide.”
Reviewers like Cerner’s education team and think the software is versatile, intuitive and makes communication between departments easy. Negative reviews say it’s expensive, difficult to use and that they experience frequent downtime.
4. Practice Fusion
“Practice Fusion is the #1 cloud-based ambulatory EHR platform in the U.S. supporting over 20,000 medical practices in delivering better care to over 5 million patients a month. With a best-in-class satisfaction rate, Practice Fusion is committed to delivering intuitive and easy-to-use health IT solutions to independent medical practices. Access on most any device, intuitive charting, seamless e-prescribing, integrated policy support, hundreds of lab and imaging connections.”
Practice Fusion is a slightly smaller company that gets higher average reviews on Capterra than the previous three vendors. Reviewers like the interface and features, and small practices note that it was free for many years. Negative reviews complain of bad customer support and a poorly-managed transition to being a paid service in 2018.
5. Epic
“Epic is a fast, physician-friendly ambulatory EHR software rated #1 by KLAS Enterprises.”
Epic gets slightly better user reviews than the previous four software solutions (4/5 stars for both Ease of Use and Customer service). Reviewers say it’s easy to use and customizable. Negative reviews focus mostly on specific feature functionalities that change with frequent updates.
6. athenahealth
“athenaClinicals helps doctors deliver high quality care by organizing the moment of care for maximum clinical productivity, performing administrative and quality services on a doctors behalf to ensure full payment, and tracking all physician orders to close the loop on results and follow-up care. Doctors benefit from continuous embedded access to the best practices of the nations largest clinical network, the most up-to-date and extensive quality rules and industry guidelines.”
Reviewers like athenahealth’s service department and implementation team and say the software is easy to setup and easy to use. Negative reviews say it’s more expensive than competitors, doesn’t support rehab/OT/PT practices and that recent changes have made it difficult to access customer support.
To learn more about top EHR vendors, review features and read customer reviews, visit Capterra’s EHR Software Directory.
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