Willingness To Invest In Outpatient EHRs and PM Solutions Grows

While the ambulatory EHR market remains somewhat stable, the number of organizations preparing to get out of their existing system has climbed over previous years, along with an increase in the number of organizations prepared to upgrade their practice management solution, according to new data from HIMSS.

To conduct the 9th Annual Outpatient PM & EHR Study, HIMSS Analytics reached out to physicians, practice managers/administrators, practice CEOs/presidents, PAs, NPs and practice IT directors/staff. A total of 436 professionals responded to its web-based survey.

The survey concluded that 93% of hospital-owned outpatient facilities had a live, in-operation EMR in place. Meanwhile, 70% of respondents representing free-standing outpatient facilities said they had an EHR in place, down from 78% last year.

As part of its survey, HIMSS Analytics asked respondents whether they planned to purchase an entirely new ambulatory EHR system, replace the existing system upgrade the system within the next two years.

The responses suggest that there’s been some new movement in the ambulatory EHR market. Most notably, 10.6% of respondents said they plan to replace their current solution, up from 6.4% in 2014. This is arguably a significant change. Also, 23.8% respondents said they were upgrading their current ambulatory solution, up from 20.8% in 2014.

In addition, the number of respondents with no investment plans fell below 60% for the first time in four years, HIMSS Analytics noted.

Though the practice management system market seems to be a bit more stable, some churn appears to be emerging here as well. Eleven percent of respondents said they plan to upgrade their current PM solution, down from 20.8% in 2014, and 9.3% said they plan to replace their current system, up from 6.4% in 2014.

All in all, there’s not a great deal of replacement activity underway, though the data does suggest a small spike. That being said, I was interested to note that respondents’ willingness to invest in a new system was higher than their willingness to upgrade a system they have.

The question is, why would ambulatory providers be ready to junk their existing EHR and practice management solutions now as opposed to three years ago? Are we reaching the end of a grand health IT replacement cycle or is there more going on here?

One possibility is that with MACRA kicking in, outpatient providers have been forced to reevaluate their existing systems in terms of their ability to support participation in QPP. Another fairly obvious possibility is that ambulatory providers are choosing to systems they feel can support their movement into value-based care.

From what I can tell, providers choosing new systems for these reasons are actually a bit behind the curve, but not terribly so. When their peers attempt to push forward with their three, four or even five-year-old systems, then you may see a replacement frenzy. Sometimes you just can’t afford to stick with Old Faithful.

About the author

Anne Zieger

Anne Zieger is a healthcare journalist who has written about the industry for 30 years. Her work has appeared in all of the leading healthcare industry publications, and she's served as editor in chief of several healthcare B2B sites.

   

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