KLAS Grades EMR Packages By Specialty

When it comes to E-medical record packages and doctor practices, one size doesn’t fit all. Whether an EMR system is right for a particular physician depends on a number of factors, including the number of doctors in the group as well as medical specialty. A new report by research firm KLAS gives grades to EMR packages by specialties.

The new report, which is available free to healthcare providers, covers ambulatory EMR packages used predominately in or sold to 10 of the most common medical specialties, ranging from pediatrics, ear, nose and throat, cardiology, OB-GYN, to multi-specialty.

KLAS points out that not all EMR vendors or medical specialties, or EMR packages that happen to be currently used by specialists, are reflected in the report. Exclusions might have been due to “insufficient data points” collected by the random sampling of vendor clients surveyed for the report.

KLAS gave letter grades to the various packages based on client feedback and 25 performance indicators, which included quality of implementation, quality of phone or web support, whether a product worked as promised, ease of use, quality of training, and “money’s worth.”

Doctors and other clinicians need to closely consider many factors before selecting an EMR package, including their practices’ particular needs, budget and internal technical capabilities.

Until recently and probably still now, choosing an EMR package was confusing and scary to many healthcare providers.

But thankfully, the decisions will likely get easier as more information about the various EMRs become available to doctors, from sources ranging from reports like KLAS’, the Office of National Coordinator for Health IT’s website listing meaningful use “certified” products, and of course word of mouth .

In the meantime, here are some of the EMR packages used in medical specialties that earned the highest grades in KLAS’ study:

Cardiology: SRSsoft Hybrid Lite EMR (component) overall grade: B+

Ear, Nose and Throat: Greenway Medical PrimeSuite Chart, overall grade: A-

Family Practice: Praxis EMR, overall grade: A

Gastrointestinal: gMed gCare Ambulatory EMR, overall grade: B

Internal Medicine: Amazing Charts EMR, overall grade: A

OB/GYN: Greenway Medical PrimeSuite Chart, overall grade: A-

Ophthalmology: SRSsoft Hybrid Lite EMR (component) overall grade: A

Orthopedics: SRSsoft Hybrid Lite EMR (component) overall grade: A

Pediatrics: Athenahealth athenaClinicals, overall grade: A

Primary Care: ComChart EMR, overall grade A

Advanced Care (Acute): SRSsoft Hybrid Lite EMR (component) overall grade: A

Advanced Care (Chronic): e-MDs Chart, overall grade: A. Tied with Athenahealth athenaClinicals, also getting an overall grade: A

Multi-specialty: Epic EpicCare Ambulatory EMR, overall grade: A-