Top Advantages and Disadvantages of EHRs

As an independent medical practice owner, you know how important it is to have the right tools to deliver healthcare services and improve staff productivity. And while you know this to be true overall, there’s a good chance you could benefit from detailed insight into the software commonly used by medical practices, hospitals, and clinics—electronic health records (EHR) systems, aka electronic medical records (EMR) systems.

According to Gartner, “Care transformation (changing the way care is delivered and tracking the changes) confers the largest benefit but takes the greatest investment in data, technology, leadership, and process change, and it requires a full set of EHR functions” (full content available to clients).

Let’s take a look at some advantages and disadvantages of EHR systems to help you figure out whether this tool is one your practice should invest in.

5 advantages of EHR systems for independent practices

The same Gartner report notes that the advantages of EHR software greatly depend on who you’re asking. In other words: EHR advantages will differ across independent doctors, patients, hospitals, and large healthcare organizations.

To help cut through the confusion, Gartner came up with “categories of EHR benefits”—five of which directly apply to independent practices. While the time and effort users have to put in before realizing these benefits will differ, the advantages of EHR software are clear.

Here are the benefit categories of EHR systems for independent practices:

1. Reduced labor

Faster review of patient data
Less time spent on calling or emailing appointment reminders
Easier documentation using templates

2. Minimized resource consumption

Less paper forms, reduced need to print physical copies
Fewer duplicate or unnecessary lab orders
Easier medication management

3. Improved care delivery

Faster time to treatment
Better medication management
Earlier and better diagnoses

4. Easier data collection and analysis

Faster report creation
More thorough view of data trends
Inventory control

5. More organizational efficiency

Improved collaboration between partners and other providers
Easier billing through coding applications
Reduced risk of malpractice claims due to better documentation

2 disadvantages of EHRs for independent practices

Extensive as this list of EHR benefits is, no software type is free of drawbacks. And while the disadvantages of EHR number fewer than the benefits, there are two categories of drawbacks worth looking at—time and money.

1. EHRs take time

It takes a lot of time to choose and deploy an EHR system. As you determine your budget, decide which features you need, schedule product demos, and negotiate with software providers—it starts to become clear that this isn’t something you can roll out in a few weeks.

Even after you select the right product, you’ll have to build in enough time for your team to learn the system before you start seeing it work smoothly.

2. EHRs cost money

There are different costs (upfront, recurring, hidden) associated with adopting new EHR systems, and independent medical practices like yours are looking for affordable options. If you want to reap all the benefits EHRs have to offer, it’s not going to happen free of charge.

There are a lot of variables involved in estimating how much it costs to adopt and install a new EHR system, so rather than trying to find that number and building your budget around it, we recommend figuring out how much you can spend and finding EHR products that fit within that limit.

When you’re ready to make the switch, start small

If you’re ready to begin looking at EHR systems, we have a few top options for you to start with.

Each software option below (listed alphabetically) is included in our 2021 EMR FrontRunners report. Software Advice’s FrontRunners reports use recently published user reviews to score products in two primary areas: usability and customer satisfaction. The three products listed below fall in the top five products with maximum value on the usability scale. You can read our full product selection methodology here.