Epic Systems may be the undisputed champion of the hospital EHR, but it’s no slouch when it comes to physician offices, either. New research from SK&A shows that more than 10% of physicians now use an Epic product, leading every other EHR vendor in a market coagulating around some well-known names.
Overall physician office EHR adoption is up to 61% as of January 2014, the poll says, a jump of ten percent since the same time last year. Mid-size and larger physician groups lead significantly in adoption, with solo physicians at 53.7% and offices of 26 or more at 77.5 percent. Sites owned by hospitals and health systems were at the top of the adoption scale, while independent practices continue to lag behind.
The top ten EHR vendors by market share make up 53% of all providers, SK&A says, with Epic Systems leading the way at 10.8 percent. eClinicalWorks was close behind at an even ten percent, while Allscripts, Practice Fusion, and NextGen round out the top five. Cloud-based Practice Fusion made the biggest jump over the past year, leaping from seventh place to fourth place, while athenahealth is the only new name to breach the list since 2012.
Despite the domination of a few big companies, plenty of the EHR market remains fragmented enough for some movement to take place. As some vendors struggle to push their products through the bottleneck of 2014 ONC certification, and providers continue to look for systems that fully leverage their clinical data and specific care needs, the industry is far from being set in stone. First-time adopters continue to look for products, and the market is still set for some significant expansion. GlobalData estimates that the EHR industry will be valued at $17 billion by 2017, jumping by nearly $7 billion from its current size.
Much of that growth will come from those smaller providers who haven’t participated in the EHR Incentive Programs yet, either due to a lack of funding or a lack of understanding about the implications. As the incentive phases of meaningful use wind down and the financial stick starts looming, physicians clinging to their paper-based workflows may start to feel the pain of smaller wallets and tighter belts. There will be plenty of technology options for them to turn to as EHRs mature and become more sophisticated to meet the challenges of the data-driven healthcare landscape. Source
