KLAS EMR Usability Report: athenaClinicals® Ranks #1 For Usability, Efficiency, And Effectiveness

Providers Rated athenahealth's Cloud-Based EHR Above Eight Other Leading Ambulatory EMRs

Watertown, MA (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- athenahealth, Inc. (Nasdaq:ATHN), a leading provider of cloud-based services for electronic health record (EHR), practice management and care coordination, today announced that its cloud-based EHR, athenaClinicals®, is now rated the most usable ambulatory electronic medical record (EMR) system, at both go-live and in current state, by health care providers, according to a new KLAS report on Ambulatory EMR Usability, released today.

The ongoing mission to improve care quality while reducing health care costs continues to fuel huge investments in EMRs by both providers and government. Yet too many EMR systems have proven to distract from care delivery workflows, impeding provider efficiency and effectiveness. In an effort to explore how "usable" EMRs actually are, industry-leading research firm KLAS interviewed 163 providers on topics related to EMR usability and the role that EMR systems and vendors play in helping providers to be productive, advance clinical decision-making and collect Meaningful Use incentive payments.

The report confirms athenaClinicals is the most usable EMR solution, with 69 percent of providers surveyed recognizing athenaClinicals as "ready-to-use" out of the gate, and 85 percent of providers attesting to its usability "today." All competing EMR vendors scored lower, with a notable 30-point spread between athenaClinicals and the lowest ranking competitive EMR.

Click here for a chart showing vendors' usability at go live and today.

athenaClinicals is also rated highest overall among all EMR systems, achieving 4.2 on a 5-point scale, for its ability to support physicians to work efficiently and effectively. Based on provider feedback, athenaClinicals most adequately supports providers in their completion of six common tasks as part of the EMR workflow. Among the tasks measured, athenaClinicals scores highest for work related to e-prescribing, physician documentation, and support for mobile devices.

Other areas where athenaClinicals is recognized for outperforming competing ambulatory EMRs include:
• Would Buy Again: Ninety-six percent of providers said they would purchase athenaClinicals again, higher than any other product in the report (11-75 physicians)
• Part of Long-Term Plans: One hundred percent of providers said that athenaClinicals is part of their long-term plans (11-75 physicians)
• Few Modifications: Less than one-third of athenaClinicals' clients needed to do extensive modifications to their athenaClinicals system, whereas other vendors' clients faced more significant modifications

As highlighted in the KLAS report, athenahealth clients had positive feedback to share about their experience using the cloud-based EHR—among the quotes, one physician reported that athenaClinicals "...runs really well 'out of the box.' It is not like an EPIC product that an army of people have to take two years to configure."

When asked about the KLAS report findings, athenahealth client and integrative pediatrician, Dr. Lawrence Rosen, said: "Although I was not interviewed by KLAS, my experience with athenaClinicals mirrors that of the physicians surveyed for this report—from initial go-live back in 2008 up through today, I've found the EHR to be incredibly user friendly, requiring few clicks, and allowing me to go about my day and focus on what's most important; delivering high quality care to my patients. Also, because of how intuitive the service is, I don't need to spend hours training new staff, or course-correcting best practices for inputting clinical information. This saves my practice valuable time—and money."

Jonathan Bush, CEO and chairman, athenahealth, said: "Being rated as the most usable EHR and as the best at driving provider effectiveness and efficiencies, it doesn't get much better than that. We aim for EHR usability where it matters—at the practice level, as part of the natural caregiver workflow, and to make regulatory compliance simple. At athenahealth, our aim is to be medical caregivers' most trusted service, helping them do well doing the right thing. These KLAS usability findings validate our mission and purpose."

Not sure what a cloud-based service really means? Want to learn more about the benefits of athenaClinicals for medical groups and health systems? Please visit the athenahealth website, or follow us on our blog, Twitter, and Facebook.

About athenahealth, Inc.
athenahealth is a leading provider of cloud-based services for EHR, practice management, and care coordination. athenahealth's mission is to be caregivers' most trusted service, helping them do well doing the right thing. For more information, please visitwww.athenahealth.com or call 888-652-8200.

About KLAS
KLAS is a research firm on a global mission to improve healthcare delivery by enabling providers to be heard and to be counted. Working with thousands of healthcare executives and clinicians, KLAS gathers data on software, services, medical equipment, and infrastructure systems to deliver timely reports, trends, and statistical overviews. The research directly represents the provider voice and acts as a catalyst for improving vendor performance. KLAS was founded in 1996, and their staff and advisory board members average 25 years of healthcare information technology experience. For more information, go to www.KLASresearch.com, emailmarketing@KLASresearch.com, or call 1-800-920-4109 to speak with a KLAS representative. Follow KLAS on Twitter @KLASresearch.

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