OREM, UT – Electronic medical record sales for 2009 are expected to far exceed 2008 sales, which were at their lowest in seven years to hospitals with more than 200 beds, according to research firm KLAS.

Researchers say federal incentives for meaningful use of EMRs are helping to boost sales.

KLAS on Wednesday released the results of its annual clinical market share report, which details the wins and losses of acute care electronic medical record (EMR) vendors at large hospitals.

The report notes that, in 2008, EMR vendors sold the fewest number of new contracts in the United States and Canada in the seven years since KLAS began tracking clinical market share information.

Epic Systems, based in Verona, Wis., continued to make gains among large hospitals even during the economic downturn, capturing nearly 40 percent of the new business, according to KLAS. McKesson and Siemens also scored wins, while Cerner saw no net growth in its clinical market share for the first time.

The KLAS report, "Physicians, Nurses, and EMR Adoption: Which Solutions are CEOs Betting On?" includes data collected from more than 1,600 hospitals with more than 200 beds in the United States and Canada.

"The advent of new meaningful use requirements, plus the ongoing debate around broader healthcare reform, has many organizations looking for a new clinical information system," said Jason Hess, KLAS' general manager of clinical research and author of the report. "During this study, KLAS identified more than 400 large hospitals that either have no EMR or are using a legacy system, and we are already aware of purchasing activity that, if the rate continues, will far exceed 2008 sales."

Beyond the steady progress of Epic's EpicCare Inpatient, Siemens' Soarian Clinicals and McKesson's Paragon Clinicals found some new wins in 2008, Hess said. Siemens was able to communicate its vision for Soarian to providers outside its client base, as five non-Siemens hospitals (four organizations) bought Soarian in 2008, despite the product's historically low computerized physician order entry (CPOE) adoption. Further, the company won three hospitals in the over-400-bed space, bucking Epic's trend of pushing vendors out of that market.

McKesson Paragon also made some inroads with larger hospitals, given its reputation as a smaller community hospital solution, the report notes. Of the 12 McKesson EMR wins in hospitals with more than 200 beds, four chose Paragon over Horizon. These wins indicate that Paragon, one of the lowest-rated systems that KLAS followed in 2000, is gaining momentum.

For Cerner and Eclipsys, the KLAS report noted that leadership in CPOE adoption did not necessarily translate into EMR wins. As validated by KLAS earlier this year, Cerner has the highest number of hospitals employing CPOE, and Eclipsys has the greatest number of physicians with CPOE – yet neither was among the top three in new large hospital EMR sales in the United States and Canada in 2008.

Other vendors highlighted in the KLAS report include GE, Meditech, Medsphere and QuadraMed.