CLEARWATER, Fla., Aug. 18, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Black Book™ well known internationally for accurate, impartial customer satisfaction surveys in the services and software industries, conducted its annual ambulatory user poll to determine the highest ranked Electronic Health and Medical Record organizations for 2015. As part of a special research focus on several specialty physician EHR users, Black Book Rankings surveyed the clients of EHR vendors with the highest scores in customer experience in the areas of Document Management, Productivity, Practice Administration, Reporting, Interoperability and Order Entry and Decision Support.

Black Book™ identified a shift upward in physician experience across the large practice and clinic sector, since first measuring EHR satisfaction six years ago. In 2013, 92% of multispecialty groups using electronic records were "very dissatisfied" with the ability of their systems to improve clinical workload, documentation and user functionalities.  In 2015, comparably, 71% of all large practice clinicians stated their optimization expectations of top ranked Black Book EHR vendors were being met or exceeded according to physician and clinician experience. 82% of administrative and support staff declared upgraded operational and financial developments, as well.

The top four ranked EHR vendors focused on the large group practice sector of medical care delivery: Allscripts, Greenway, McKesson and athenahealth recorded the largest increases in client satisfaction over the past twelve months.

According to Black Book survey results of 1,304 large practices, overall satisfaction improved as follows:

Physician experience satisfaction, from 8% (2013), to 31% (2014) to 67% in Q2 2015.

Physician documentation improvements, from 10% (2013), to 28% (2014) to 63% in Q2 2015.

Practice productivity enhancements, from 7% (2013), to 17% (2014) to 68% in Q2 2015.

Users of the top four ranked EHR systems agreed that vendor investments in 2014 and 2015 have attributed update and releases (34%), practice assessments (44%), clinical workflow enhancements (60%), revenue cycle management and analytics value adds (89%), population health capabilities (33%) and solicited physician feedback (90%) have contributed the most to their rise in overall system satisfaction.

Significant decreases in satisfaction were also noted by users of several clinic oriented EHR users that failed in regional connectivity attempts (76%), implementation and training (77%), and customer support (85%).

"Meaningful use deadlines, total integration and reliable delivery may have influenced large group practice buyers to purchase initial EHRs from 2010 through 2013, but replacement buyers sought better EHR tools in 2014 that include patient engagement, true interoperability, enhanced usability and productivity gains," said Doug Brown, Managing Partner of Black Book. "There was also a measureable shift in loyalty to vendors that offered a robust, core EHR to accommodate evolving reforms."   

Among those surveyed, Black Book revealed 18% of implemented large practices and clinics are in the discussion or execution stages of replacing their original EHR by 2016 year end.

Opportunities for product penetration among current client bases of the  top ranked EHR vendors was also recorded in the 2015 survey.  

"EHR firms with a wide offering of products including health information exchange, population health tools, revenue cycle management services, patient portals, dashboards and analytics are emerging as the next wave of healthcare technology leaders," said Brown. "These leading vendors are assisting their clients in assessing current practice operations to meet the demands of ICD-10, payment reform, connectivity beyond closed networks, revenue cycle management gaps, and population health tools, and recommending effective options within the same vendor suite."

According to large practice executives and physicians, the primary reasons for top vendors succeeding in product penetration into their current client bases in the second half of 2015 include:

Client education (42%)

Product bundling (31%) and

Marketing (26%)