Before addressing more advanced issues, small physician practices want their health IT vendors to first figure out how to meet the practices’ needs for product functionality, product usability, and vendor support and guidance, according to a new report from KLAS Research.
As KLAS researchers pointed out, as healthcare has moved beyond meaningful use, small practices have begun to expect more from their vendors and to look for EHRs (electronic health records) that do more than meet basic regulatory requirements. As a result, EHR/PM (practice management) satisfaction among small practices (10 or fewer physicians) has varied greatly over the past year—scores for a number of vendors have swung more than 10 percentage points (some positively, some negatively), according to the report.
To explore what the future holds for this market, KLAS spoke to hundreds of small practice customers about their EHR/PM experiences and needs and also interviewed executives and representatives from key vendors in this segment to find out how they plan to increase customer satisfaction going forward.
When asked to name the top things EHR/PM vendors should focus on, small practices overwhelmingly said that before addressing more advanced issues, their vendors need to first figure out how to meet small practices’ needs for product functionality, product usability, and vendor support and guidance.
But according to the feedback data, NextGen Healthcare is the only vendor whose self-reported priorities align completely with this desired focus, though responses from Aprima and CureMD also show alignment in many areas, KLAS reported.
Yet, in their interviews with KLAS, some vendors, such as CareCloud, Cerner, and eMDs, emphasized that delivering new technology (bells and whistles) is their number one focus. Such features can be beneficial once practices’ basic needs for functionality, usability, and support are met, but the fact that CareCloud, Cerner, and eMDs have lower customer satisfaction highlights a misalignment between what small practices need and what these vendors are focused on, KLAS researchers concluded.
What’s more, the feedback revealed that training is one of the leading predictors of future EHR success and satisfaction. This indicates that not all user dissatisfaction with EHR/PM solutions can be attributed to the solution itself, the researchers noted. Vendors interviewed for this small practice report echoed this finding, with almost half saying that customers underinvest in education.
