Healthcare organizations depend on medical practice management software to centralize important data, automate workflows for billing and front desk staff, and improve financial and operational outcomes.
Although they are an essential foundation of the tech stack, how can buyers know which practice management system (PMS) is right for them?
Powered by user reviews, G2 releases 16 reports every season for our Medical Practice Management category. These reports help buyers compare solutions, glean key insights in a structured format, and ultimately make informed decisions when selecting a PMS.
This blog highlights the biggest takeaways from the recently published Winter 2024 Grid® Report for Medical Practice Management.
Highlights from the Winter 2024 Grid® Report for Medical Practice Management
The report ushers a change in the top five overall category leaders since the Fall 2023® Grid Report, with Power Diary and eClinicalWorks replacing NextGen Healthcare EHR and Luma Health.
Meanwhile, Pabau retains its number one position, and industry leader Epic falls from second to third place. Overall, these top products have high G2 scores ranging between 71 - 79; each had a high Satisfaction score and a sizably lower Market Presence score or vice versa.
While the small business segment rankings don’t vary much, the mid-market segment shows all but Epic being replaced by other products that aren’t present in the top five overall.
NextGen Healthcare EHR and Luma Health return here and are joined by CentralReach and Tebra (previously Kareo + PatientPop) in the fourth and fifth slots, respectively.
There was no enterprise segment report published.
Epic focuses more on enterprise buyers, whereas the other leading products focus more on small and mid-market segments, which could impact this ranking variance. About 78% of Epic’s reviews came from enterprise customers, while more than 95% of reviews for Pabau, Power Diary, and Splose came from small businesses.
A quick look at the Winter 2024 Momentum Grid® Report for Medical Practice Management also shows that Epic’s Momentum Score is only 47, while that of Splose (73), Power Diary (81), and Pabau (84) are significantly higher.
Out of the top five overall products, Pabau, Power Diary, and Splose exceed the category average for Simple Six satisfaction ratings.
Epic falls short for certain criteria like Ease of Admin, Ease of Doing Business With, and Ease of Setup, which makes sense given the complexity of the health systems they predominantly serve.
eClinicalWorks, despite ranking in the overall top five and small business top five, scores below the category average for all of these satisfaction ratings. Compared to other products that didn’t make the top five, their high market presence score could be the saving grace here.
These products rank highly for a reason, but buyers should still do their due diligence when evaluating this top list so they can understand where each product exceeds or falls short of expectations.
Let’s dig into the implementation and return on investment (ROI) data in this Winter 2024 report to see what users said about the leading products.
Implementation and ROI insights from G2's Medical Practice Management category
G2 review data for 2023 shows an average implementation timeframe of 1.91 months across medical practice management software listings but an average timeframe of 13 months to achieve full ROI after implementation.
Meanwhile, the average contract length was just shy of 7 months. That means buyers may require two contract cycles before getting full value from their PMS.
Where do the overall top five products rank against these average values?
Power Diary and Splose are the only products with a quicker implementation timeframe than the category average, though Pabau and eClinicalWorks still have reasonable averages. Epic, on the other hand, requires nearly 5x the time investment to go live.
One consideration here: implementation requirements for enterprise customers are more complex compared to small and mid-size business segments.
That’s also apparent in the average ROI timeline; eClinicalWorks users report 30 months, more than double the overall category average, and Epic is only slightly shorter at 28 months. Pabau, Power Diary, and Splose all have an average time to ROI that’s better than the category average, but they, along with Epic and eClinicalWorks, still exceed the average contract length.
The deployment data for these top products suggests buyers are more likely to choose on-premises over the cloud. Epic has the largest skew, with only 20% of buyers reporting they deployed via the cloud.
On-premises is seen as more cost-effective and secure by some buyers still wary of trusting cloud vendors with sensitive healthcare data; this is an opportunity for vendors to set themselves apart with their security accolades.
Buyers may not understand the required investment for on-premises deployment, which could impact these go-live and ROI times.
Setting up server infrastructure and future-proofing it for scalability demands strategy. Of course, that kind of planning requires time, and buyers may not always have that luxury.
Next steps for medical practice management software buyers
Healthcare organizations have different needs depending on the scale of their operations, which is why it’s imperative to choose the right PMS.
The winter report findings suggest that a product’s primary customer segment can influence the complexity of implementing and achieving full ROI. For example, smaller clinics, practices, and health systems may not require as many integrations or need to consider long-term scalability as a large health system would.
Buyers should take this into consideration, along with a few other points:
- What implementation support, if any, does the vendor offer? A third-party implementation process will add additional time and cost.
- How closely does your organization match the vendor’s most common customer persona? Factors like organization size, type of medical practice, and budget can limit the prospective PMS options.
- How flexible is the vendor’s pricing model, and can they guarantee the PMS will provide full ROI within one contract period? Given the current trends, you’ll want to anticipate delayed timelines in your project strategy.
G2’s verified peer reviews can help buyers dig into these concerns and hear what others have to say about potential PMS vendors.
The sustained popularity of vendors who cater to smaller organization sizes introduces more feasible options for buyers who don’t need the complexity of a system like Epic. Buyers should utilize G2 and dive deeper into information such as features, ease of use, ease of setup, or pricing.
By taking the time to conduct this research, healthcare organizations can enter the selection and buying process for their PMS with more confidence. This investment is too important not to, after all.
Healthcare is ready for AI solutions that can go the extra mile. Learn more about the trends in healthcare in 2024.
Edited by Jigmee Bhutia
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