While the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly affected hospital operations, EHR purchasing activity increased in 2020 largely by big organizations and standalone community hospitals, according to a recent KLAS Research report.
For its "U.S. Hospital Market Share 2021" report, KLAS examined EHR purchasing activity and contracts across the country from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 2020. This includes EHR market share data for acute care specialty hospitals and other specialty hospitals.
Here are 10 things to know about the EHR market and top vendors:
1. The pandemic's effect on EHR contracting varied throughout 2020, with 77 hospitals reporting an impact on their contract during the first quarter of the year.
2. This number shrunk to 30 hospitals in the second quarter and gradually increased to 41 hospitals by quarter three. By the fourth quarter, 71 hospitals reported that COVID-19 affected EHR contracting.
3. Epic now maintains nearly one-third (31 percent) of the EHR market share, followed by Cerner at 25 percent, Meditech at 16 percent and Allscripts at 5 percent.
4. Of the major vendors, Epic was the only EHR company to report a positive net change in acute hospital market share, up 101. Cerner, Meditech and Allscripts all dropped by 19, nine and one, respectively.
5. Allscripts and Epic both added hospital beds in 2020, with net changes of +13 and +19,247, respectively. Cerner lost 10,480 hospital beds and Meditech lost 3,458 beds for the year.
6. Cerner reported 23 inpatient specialty hospital wins for 2020, followed by Meditech with seven and Epic with five.
7. Meditech was the only major vendor to record acute care hospital migrations during the year, with 14 wins total.
8. Breaking down the types of acute care hospital wins among the vendors, KLAS defined three categories: competitive wins, customer migrations and merger and acquisition standardization. Epic saw the most competitive wins with 83, followed by Cerner with 24 and Meditech with 11.
9. For customer migration wins, Meditech outscored the other vendors with 14 total; for M&A standardization wins, Epic led the pack with 21, followed by Cerner with 16, Meditech with five and Allscripts with four.
10. Cerner secured the most contracts with small standalone hospitals, with 19 total wins, followed by Meditech with nine and Epic with four.