EHR Industry Insiders Predict the Demise of Hundreds of Competitors in Black Book Replacement Market Survey

Press Release | Black Book | July 16, 2013

EHR industry insiders predict the crowded environment of nearly a thousand rivals will shrink down to less than half by 2017, or by Meaningful Use 3, whichever comes first. Black Book Market Research expanded its recent study of the EHR replacement market conditions to include HIT consultants, contractors, implementers, management, support staff and analysts.

New York, NY (PRWEB) July 16, 2013--Black Book Rankings, a division of Black Book Market Research, polled 880 EHR consultants, analysts, managers and support team members on the state of affairs in this "Year of the Great EHR Switch." Nine of 10 insiders agree that the majority of EHR vendors currently implemented will fail to sustain operations by the time meaningful use stage 3 is fully implemented.

It's not all the goliaths that insiders are forecasting for long term survival. Over 600 smaller vendors are still jockeying for a leftover slice of the EHR pie. "Many mid-market vendors, particularly those with niche focus on medical and surgical specialists, and alternative care delivery settings are pushing government initiatives for industry-wide innovation, connectivity and usability and gaining replacement market share," said Doug Brown, Managing Partner of Black Book.

82 percent of insiders are confident that well-funded, inventive small vendors that carved a niche in specialist sectors should have better foundations for viability than those who failed to resolve the fundamental flaws caused by being all things to all physicians.

Notable Black Book survey findings include:

  • 90 percent of insiders expect the majority of existing vendors will have merged, been acquired or ceased operations within five years;
  • 88 percent of insiders ascertain that most of these vendors will falter because they pushed usability issues to the back burner in order to capitalize on the incentive spoils of meaningful use achievement;
  • 77 percent of vendors participating in the survey admit that the hard costs of replacing lost clients is one of their most pressing revenue generation concerns;
  • 71 percent of EHR vendor employees expect to have changed jobs within the industry at least two more times in the next three years.

On July 23, Black Book will release the results of a sweeping follow-up survey of 2,900 vendor-swapping physician practices, dissatisfied with original system selections. "The State of the EHR Replacement Market" reveals the top thirty EHR vendors with the highest likelihood of long term viability. An elite group of eight EHR vendors that scored consistently among the highest client satisfaction ratings on seven independent 2013 Black Book user polls will be revealed as well. The aggregate findings are comprised from the user experiences of 16,000 EHR users across 550 EHR vendors including:

  • Physician Productivity and Practice Satisfaction across all group sizes: Solo to 100+ doctors
  • Physician Practice Satisfaction across medical and surgical specialties + primary care
  • Meaningful Use 1 Achievement, Attestations, CPOE and e-Prescribing
  • Meaningful Use 2+ Advancements, including Patient Portal and Interoperability
  • Mobile Apps (iPad and Phone)
  • Connectivity (HIE)
  • Practice Management Advancements, including Revenue Cycle changes and ICD10

Black Book is recognized globally as the unbiased, independent source for polling, surveys, market research, competitive analysis, opinion mining and customer satisfaction results across industries and the information technology sectors.