Medical center EMR sales doubled last year

The KLAS report, “CIS Purchase Decisions: Riding the ARRA Wave”, reflects data collected from more than 1,600 hospitals with more than 200 beds in the United States and Canada. During the challenging economy in 2008 EMR sales reached a seven-year low, but purchases nearly doubled in 2009 reflecting the increased attention EMR systems have received since the stimulus announcement.

“Changes in the CIS market place as a result of ARRA seem to have blindsided some vendors and left them struggling to stay afloat in the large hospital market,” stated report author Jason Hess. “In 2009 Eclipsys, GE, McKesson Horizon, and QuadraMed all lost more hospitals than they gained; they are struggling to regain lost ground.” 

Three prominent provider concerns emerged in the research regarding CIS decisions: integration, clinical adoption and reliability. Organizations not only want a truly integrated system that clinicians will actually use; they want a vendor that can be a consistent and reliable partner in their efforts to reach meaningful use. Hess continued, “Nearly 70 percent of the new 2009 hospital purchases in the report are an integrated solution.”

Recent and pending changes in the market segment may shift the EMR purchase pendulum. McKesson’s Paragon product was originally developed for a community hospital environment, but sold to more large hospitals in 2009 than its Horizon solution did. The recent Eclipsys acquisition by Allscripts may be a catalyst that will affect the product offering and its success. Some providers are looking forward with cautious optimism to GE’s release of Quilibria, the result of collaboration with Intermountain Healthcare, even with GE’s customer satisfaction rating decreasing by five points in 2009.