From Archaic to Agile: Long-Term Trends Since 2018 Highlight How Workflow Satisfaction is Redefining the Inpatient EHR Landscape

TAMPA, FL / ACCESS Newswire / July 3, 2025 / With workflow efficiency now a top strategic priority for health systems responding to clinician burnout, workforce constraints, and operational performance pressures, a new Black Book Research survey of 409 US inpatient EHR users reveals meaningful disparities in satisfaction across major inpatient EHR platforms, and dramatic shifts for some since 2018.

Workflow efficiency, as defined by hospital users, includes enhancements in documentation speed, ease of data entry, reduced redundancy, improved navigation, automation of clinical tasks, and fewer steps to complete common workflows. These factors significantly influence provider productivity, clinical throughput, and EHR return on investment.

In the Q2 2025 Black Book Inpatient EHR Survey, conducted between March 31 and June 30, key findings include:

• 85% of respondents ranked workflow efficiency as the top driver of EHR satisfaction (up from 61% in 2018).

• 74% attributed increased clinician burnout in part to inefficient or cumbersome EHR workflows.

• 82% indicated that workflow limitations disrupted patient throughput or delayed care coordination.

Yet only 2% of surveyed organizations plan to evaluate vendor alternatives by 2027 if workflow progress remains insufficient.

Each of the five evaluated vendors received no fewer than fifty validated responses from users working in live inpatient care settings.

2025 vs. 2018 Inpatient EHR Workflow Efficiency Comparison

(Scores reflect average user satisfaction with workflow efficiency on a 1-10 scale determined from a mean of the key performance indicators below)

'Incorporating KPI-specific feedback allows us to pinpoint not just which vendors are improving, but how they are improving,' Brown added. 'The message from hospitals is clear that workflow metrics matter more than ever in selecting and optimizing EHR technology.'

MEDITECH's improvement from 5.16 in 2018 to 9.45 in 2025 is widely attributed to the US release and adoption of MEDITECH Expanse, which modernized the system with a touch-friendly interface, advanced clinical workflows, and documentation tools aligned with physician usability standards. Earlier platforms (MAGIC, C/S, and MOX) were frequently criticized as inefficient and outdated. Since 2021, users of Expanse have described the system as both adaptable and clinician-friendly, and particularly suited for community hospitals and mid-sized facilities. 'While optimization continues post-implementation, Expanse is now seen as a fully modern EHR foundation,' Brown commented.

How Workflow Efficiency Was Measured

Black Book evaluated vendors using eight Health Systems EHR workflow-specific qualitative KPIs:

• Documentation Time Reduction

• Task Automation Impact

• Click Reduction per Task

• System Navigation Speed

• Real-Time Data Access

• Interoperability Within Workflows

• Clinician Satisfaction with Daily Use

• Workflow Optimization Responsiveness

Each vendor received 1-10 scores per KPI, averaged to generate the 'Workflow Efficiency Score' shown above.

Survey Methodology and Confidence Level

Black Book Research conducted this nationwide survey independently and anonymously across U.S. hospitals using Epic, MEDITECH, Oracle Health, Altera/Allscripts, or TruBridge/CPSI. All 409 respondents were identified as current users with direct clinical or administrative experience. Eighty-eight percent were validated as returning Black Book survey evaluators from prior survey years.

At a 95% confidence level, this sample yields a ±4.74% margin of error, based on the estimated 5,436 U.S. facilities using these five systems. Black Book does not accept vendor payments, promotional sponsorships, or influence in compiling or publishing performance rankings.

About Black Book™

Black Book™ Research is an independent healthcare market research and opinion research company, dedicated to helping healthcare organizations make informed technology and business decisions through transparent, crowdsourced satisfaction polling. Since 2010, Black Book has conducted comprehensive longitudinal studies of inpatient EHR satisfaction, helping hospitals benchmark and monitor vendor performance over time. 136,000 inpatient EHR system users have provided feedback to Black Book over the last decade on multiple KPIs.

Black Book is vendor agnostic and maintains no financial affiliations, sponsorships, subscriptions, or consulting relationships with any of the software or service providers it evaluates. Every ranking is based solely on validated client and user feedback. Through its unique combination of flash polls, annual satisfaction studies, and trend-focused research, Black Book delivers trusted, unbiased, and actionable intelligence across the healthcare technology landscape.

For more information, as well as multiple gratis reports serving healthcare IT stakeholders visit:
www.blackbookmarketresearch.com or contact us at [email protected]

SOURCE: Black Book Research