VA’s EHR ranked highest by physicians

Physicians have ranked the Veteran’s Administration EHR, the VA Computerized Patient Record System, as the top EHR for overall user satisfaction, according to Medscape’s 2014 EHR Report.

Medscape surveyed 18,500 physicians in 25 specialties, of which 83 percent currently have EHRs and 4 percent plan to install one. After the VA, Practice Fusion and Amazing Charts tied for second place, while MEDENT and e-MDs shared third place. Survey participants rated the EHRs based on their ease of use, vendor support, overall satisfaction with the product, how well it connects with other systems and usefulness as a clinical tool.

The most widely used EHR products by those surveyed included Epic (23 percent), Cerner (9 percent), Allscripts (8 percent), eClinicalWorks (6 percent) and NextGen (6 percent)—but 22 percent reported using “other systems.”

In other findings, respondents credited EHRs with improving documentation (63 percent), improving collections (39 percent), improving clinical operations (34 percent), and improving patient service (32 percent). But not everyone agreed; 38 percent said their EHRs worsened patient service and 35 percent felt it worsened clinical operations.

Compared to its 2012 survey, physicians had more negative things to say about EHR’s impact on patient encounters. Seventy percent of respondents said their EHRs decrease face-to-face time and 57 percent said it decreases their ability to see patients.

While physicians reported more comfort in using EHRs over time, the majority (53 percent) said they have not helped staff management, which includes assigning tasks, moving messages around the office and documenting the completion of patient service items.

Find the report here.