OREM, UT – A reported dip in customer satisfaction and service after last year's merger between Chicago-based Allscripts and British-based Misys is unlikely to dampen future sales of the company's electronic medical record solutions, according to research firm KLAS.

The KLAS report reflects the opinions of 200 Allscripts customers who are using the company's EMR or practice management products and their experiences with version 11 of the Allscripts Enterprise EHR.

"Allscripts is the most-often-considered EMR vendor in the ambulatory market, but the premature release of version 11 has generated major challenges for nearly every Enterprise client – and today there is still a significant gap between the customer satisfaction of version 10 clients and those who have deployed version 11," said Mark Wagner, KLAS' director of ambulatory research and author of the new report. "Many of those version 10 clients are delaying an upgrade until the offering improves, and a few are leaving Allscripts altogether."

According to the report, some version 11 clients – typically those who have been willing to invest significant time and resources and who have deployed version 11.1.5 or higher – are now seeing benefits such as greater stability and improved workflow and efficiency. Also noteworthy is the fact that all of the version 11 customers surveyed are connecting directly to retail pharmacies.

The report suggests that last year's Allscripts-Misys merger has also contributed to some of the customer satisfaction struggles. Customer perception is that Allscripts has had to shift its technical and support resources to work on the merger, migrating existing Misys clients to Allscripts solutions and addressing a host of issues with Enterprise version 11, leaving many frustrated Enterprise clients.

KLAS researchers say customer service has been an Allscripts strength, but that service has been stretched thin by the merger and recent product issues – but this won't lead to a mass departure of EMR customers. The study found that 85 percent of Misys EMR users planning to replace their EMR intend to purchase the Allscripts Professional EHR. This, KLAS said, could be due to the fact that Allscripts appears to be keeping migration costs relatively low – a compelling move that should help retain many Misys clients.