While Epic Systems may still be that the giant in the room, according KLAS, athenahealth is the best overall software vendor for 2013.
athenahealth’s taking first place pushes Epic to second for the first time in eight years. athenahealth got the most positive opinions from the thousands of providers participating in the KLAS poll, notably praise for the usability of its athenaClinicals, athenaCollector and athenaCommunicator products, according to EHR Intelligence.
athenahealth CEO Jonathan Bush was all too happy to take a victory lap. “The old guard of each IT leaders is finally being displaced by more nimble innovative models designed for healthcare’s future – not for its past,” Bush told EHR Intelligence.
Epic still remains in first place as for its overall software suite, reports EHR Intelligence. And it took home multiple prizes this year. But there’s a revolution brewing outside the Epic palace, it would appear. Not one that calls for angry peasants and pitchforks, but clearly some level of entrenched discontent is at work here.
Other well-known vendors of EMRs took their lumps as well. For example, Cerner came in at seventeenth, McKesson at 20th, and Allscripts came in 23rd.
So what to make of all of this? As my colleague John Lynn notes, awards of this kind are best taken with a grain of salt. After all, providers don’t need software that wins popularity contests, they need software which they can afford, which can handily meet Meaningful Use standards and which doctors and nurses and other clinicians can use without a hitch. Being sure their vendors win sexy awards really isn’t on their worry list.
Still, the fact that Epic has been unseated after eight years at the top of KLAS’s best vendor list may mean something. Perhaps Epic’s grip on the market is loosening a bit?
