The 10 Most Popular EHR Systems

Another round of “Meaningful Use” guidelines has just been announced by the federal government. That means it’s another round of looking at the Electronic Health Record (EHR) system used by your hospital or practice to see if you’ll be ready to meet the 2018 standards.

Electronic Health Records are intended to streamline patient care across providers and create pools of data public health officials and researchers can use to affect policy. But with the wrong system, EHRs can also create a lot of headaches. Can the software send e-prescriptions? Can it remind patients of appointments? Can it record all of the necessary data, and communicate with other software used in the community? These are all questions that will need to be answered about EHRs by the time CMS fully implements Meaningful Use stage 3.

Capterra, a software solution company, issued a report on the 20 most popular EHR systems. Instead of basing their list just on the number of users, or the market share of the software, Capterra also considered things like Google searches and social media followers to round out their definition of popularity.

Here’s a look at Capterra’s top 10:

10. OPTUMInsight

OPTUMInsight is the software and consulting arm of UnitedHealth’s health services platform. The web-based portal is relatively inexpensive compared to other EHR systems, and is geared towards medium-sized practices up to hospitals. The umbrella company, OPTUM, also offers IT solutions to help hospitals modernize their systems.

9. practice fusion

Unique to the list, practice fusion software is free to health care providers. The company claims, with some backup data, that their cloud-based portal is number one in customer satisfaction among primary care providers. The website also provides a “meaningful use dashboard” to help physicians meet the demands of CMS. No wonder they have 7.1% of market share for small practices.

8. Care360

Another offshoot of a larger company, Care360 is part of Quest Diagnostics. The software boasts many of the capabilities outlined in Meaningful Use stage 3, including e-prescribing and multi-system interoperability. Another bonus to Care360 that isn’t offered by some of the other systems on the list is compatibility with iPads. Capterra estimates more than 160,000 users are on the Care360 system.

7. Epic

Epic boasts an 8% market share and 230,000 users, but is likely lower on the popularity chart due to its incredibly high cost. It’s estimated that Kaiser Permanente spent $4 billion installing Epic’s EHR system, which went live in 2010. The platform is geared towards medium sized practices all the way up to hospital systems the size of KP, with 9 million members. Recently, Epic launched a cloud-based version as well as integrated its system into Apple’s HealthKit app, putting their competition on notice.

6. GE Healthcare

As with most technology, opinions are pretty split about GE Healthcare’s EHR system. While the mega-corporation’s is ranked sixth on this list, it’s ranked number one by TopTenReviews.com. GE’s software check’s the vast majority of boxes when it comes to patient communication, software integration, back-office speed and accuracy, as well as hosting and certification requirements. GE’s Healthcare division also has the highest levels of social media activity amongst all of the software providers on the list.

5. athenahealth

The stock market darling athenahealth is the highest-ranked platform that does not (yet) aggressively target large practices and hospitals. The web-based software does EHRs and billing, and takes a percentage of income collected by providers as its fee, potentially making it very expensive to use. TopTenReviews.com rates it only behind GE Healthcare in terms of best products available, but among small practices, athenahealth only has 2.5% of the market share. Some investors are also looking at the company’s competitors and numbers, and see some trouble in the near future for the company.

4. Allscripts

Allscripts targets all practices, from single-practitioner all the way up to major hospital systems, and is popular with small practices, capturing 10% of market share. The system does get dinged by TopTenReviews.com because personalized health plans and patient education resources are not part of the program, but with more than 160,000 users, that doesn’t seem to be too big of an issue. Allscripts is also very proud of its outreach to clients; at a recent trade show, the company’s booth was more than 6,300 square feet, with meeting rooms and on-site experts to answer questions.

3. Cerner

One of Cerner’s big draws is its dedication to interoperability. The software can be run through the cloud, as well as installed on computers running on Windows, Apple IOS, and Linux. Cerner is also making waves through partnerships with Apple and Qualcomm to increase integration with patient-generated health data apps. Cerner’s EHR system’s major drawback is that it is not a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) system, but an Application Service Provider (ASP) system, which provides more customization options but is slower to update.

2. McKesson

McKesson is a health care gargantuan, with IT solutions being only a part of the company’s portfolio. The number 15 corporation on the Fortune 500 brings with its EHR system knowledge from being one of the largest pharmaceutical distributers in the country, as well as being a medical supply company. With more than 200,000 users, the system is the third largest in terms of people who interact with the software. With six different software options for EHR, McKesson tries to have something for everyone.

1. eClinicalWorks

With more than 370,000 users, eClincialWorks is the biggest and highest-ranked EHR system in the US right now. As with all EHR systems, there are some horror stories out there, but the vast majority of those who use eClinicalWorks like the bells and whistles offered to both physicians and patients. Billing through eClinicalWorks is a specialty of the software. The company is also emphasizing wellness through data from patient-generated health data apps being integrated into the EHR charts. Interoperability is another focus; they recently announced a collaboration with Epic to connect the 2 companies’ systems in order to help care coordination.

Click here to view Capterra’s full list.