Don't Judge An EHR By Its Rating

By Katie Wike, contributing writer

Are EHR industry ratings really fair to the technology when it comes to usability?

The highest ranking EHR might not necessarily be the best and most user friendly, according to EHR Intelligence. Author Sarah Heath points out that, just last month, KLAS congratulated the 2015/2016 Best in KLAS winning EHRs, saying, “The title of Best in KLAS is a highly coveted recognition of outstanding efforts to help healthcare professionals deliver better patient care. It is reserved for vendor solutions that lead the software and services market segments with the broadest operational and clinical impact on healthcare organizations.”

Yet, according to other sources, the Best in KLAS winner in several categories, Epic Systems, has received numerous usability complaints recently. How can a top EHR in one rankings report also be named last in usability by another?

Last October, Epic Systems was ranked last in usability by the Black Book study. “The survey, conducted August through October, found hospitals polled utilizing Epic Systems' enterprise EHR solutions were most dissatisfied with the inability to integrate with best of breed EDIS solutions (86 percent) or provide widespread connectivity to obtain external records (83 percent).” wrote Black Book.

But Epic isn’t the only EHR vendor whose stats just don’t match up. Heath also cites a poll conducted by peer60 which found more than half, 54 percent, of surveyed providers are unhappy with their EHRs. Health IT Outcomes reported in November that three in four hospitals was dissatisfied with usability and interoperability.

When asked to list their most desirable features in a 2016 replacement EHR, respondents’ top desires included ease of use (cited by 86 percent).