Kalorama: EMR market tops $23B

Government incentives and the increasing use of EMRs for quality of care and cost-saving reasons helped drive the EMR market to $23.2 billion in 2013, according to a recent report published by the medical market research firm Kalorama Information.

EMR upgrading and new purchases both were factors in the growth, according to the report, “EMR 2014: The Market for EMRs,” which was the product of interviews with industry officials, consultants, healthcare providers and government personnel.

The forecast assumes the trend of adoption will continue to move forward, although slowing somewhat; hospital EMR adoption will supersede doctors EMR adoption; and current EMR Stage 3 will move up in stages, according to Kalorama.

“We think adoption and upgrading activities will still be stimulating growth in 2014-2018,” said Mary Ann Crandall, Kalorama analyst and the author of the report. “As new systems are sold, companies will still earn revenues from existing clients in servicing and consulting services."

This is the seventh year that Kalorama has studied the market for EMRs. In its total, Kalorama includes revenues for EMR/EHR systems, CPOE systems and directly related services such as installation, training, servicing and consulting. It does not include PACS or hardware.

“We estimate a quarter to a third of customers would like to switch EMRs and may look into replacing their current vendor,” said Mary Ann Crandall. “The main reasons for dissatisfaction with the system they have includes lack of key features, a cumbersome and complex interface, poor EHR usability and bad hardware. “

More on the report can be accessed here

 

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