Black Book Rankings has revealed the results of a sweeping four-month survey to find which EHR and EMR software systems are meeting the needs of physicians the most in 2015.
The market research organization surveyed more than 5,700 small and independent medical practices. Here are 10 findings from the survey.
1. Roughly 83 percent of the medical practices surveyed reported the single biggest trend in physician technology is cloud-based EHRs
2. Improvements in web-based EHRs — including implementations, updates, usability and customization — improved overall EHR satisfaction in small practices from barely 13 percent meeting or exceeding expectations in 2012 to 81 percent overall contented small practice EHR users in the second quarter of 2015.
3. The adoption rate of cloud-based EHRs in small practices in urban settings increased from 60 percent in 2013 to 82 percent in 2015. The adoption by rural practices remains approximately the same as it was in 2013, around 20 percent.
4. Nearly all (91 percent) of non-urban physicians in solo practice report fear of internet outages prevents them from changing to a cloud-based EHR, despite the potential benefits.
5. The majority (69 percent) of small practices plan to increase their investment in the advancements made by their current cloud-based vendor.
6. The main factor in purchasing a cloud EHR is pricing, according to 79 percent of small medical practices.
7. Thirty-eight percent of small or solo practice physicians have moderate to serious concerns about the security and privacy of cloud-based EHR systems even though 90 percent recognize that the cloud EHR platform and infrastructure models have matured into being a top safeguard to protect health information.
8. Still, 81 percent of physicians employing server-based EHR software say they are concerned that their system, device, server or files may be stolen or breached. Ninety-two percent of small practice EHR users that switched to a cloud-based EHR from a server in the last six months feel their chances of a major patient record data breach are lowered, but more than half (52 percent) report their fears of system downtime have increased since the switchover.
9. About 69 percent of small practice physicians agree that first generation EHRs have not lived up to expectations, and are dissatisfied with cost add-ons, affected workflows and lost time with patients.
10. Conversions to using software-as-a-service type implementations have increased from 64 percent in 2014 to 79 percent in 2015, driving the growing number of physician practices to cloud-based products.
To read more survey findings, click here.
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