Choosing an EHR is overwhelming.
You’re juggling tight budgets and compliance mandates, all while trying to find a system that actually simplifies your clinical workflows, not complicates them.
The pressure to get this critical decision right is immense. A wrong move can cost your practice dearly in time, money, and staff frustration.
This is made worse by conflicting vendor claims, leaving you unsure which features are truly essential versus just expensive, confusing add-ons.
But finding the right fit doesn’t have to be a stressful gamble. This guide will help clarify your specific needs and match them to your budget.
Speaking of clarifying needs, my guide on patient engagement solutions further explores vital tools for your practice.
In this article, I’ll walk you through the best electronic health record (EHR) software, so you can confidently select a system that supports your practice.
You’ll learn how to compare key features, evaluate true costs, and ensure your final choice boosts both efficiency and quality patient care.
Let’s get started.
Quick Summary:
| # | Software | Rating | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Epic → | Large clinical practice managers | |
| 2 | athenahealth → | Small to medium practices | |
| 3 | eClinicalWorks → | Small to medium practices | |
| 4 | NextGen Healthcare → | Small to medium practices | |
| 5 | Tebra → | Clinical practice managers |
1. Epic
Struggling with EHR choices and tight budgets?
Epic simplifies complex healthcare decisions with its comprehensive platform.
Their solutions address your core challenges, offering a streamlined approach to managing patient data.
Here’s your pathway to clarity.
Epic provides a robust and integrated system designed to unify your clinical and administrative operations.
You gain powerful tools that automate clinical documentation and enable real-time patient data sharing across care settings.
This means less administrative burden and improved diagnosis accuracy, all while maintaining compliance and providing intuitive dashboards for health maintenance alerts and quality reporting, ensuring your practice thrives.
Your success is their priority.
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Key features:
- Integrated Solutions: Unify clinical and administrative tasks, streamlining workflows and reducing manual effort for your team.
- Patient Data Sharing: Enable real-time exchange of patient information across various care settings, improving coordination and care quality.
- Automated Documentation: Simplify clinical charting and compliance reporting, freeing your staff to focus more on patient care.
Epic features, pricing, & alternatives →
Verdict: Epic is a strong contender for the best Electronic Health Record (EHR) software, particularly for clinical practice managers seeking an integrated solution that reduces administrative burdens and enhances patient care coordination. Its focus on unified operations and automated documentation helps practices meet compliance and improve efficiency.
2. athenahealth
Is your practice overwhelmed by EHR choices?
athenahealth offers athenaOne, an AI-powered, all-in-one solution that aims to simplify your daily operations. This means you can focus more on patient care and less on administrative burdens.
It’s an integrated platform that includes EHR, practice management, and patient engagement capabilities, designed to improve clinical and operational efficiency for your ambulatory practice. This helps alleviate staff burnout and frees you to focus on patients.
Here’s how athenahealth makes it simpler.
athenaOne provides a connected, tailorable EHR solution that empowers clinicians. This platform also includes medical billing and practice management software, helping you boost efficiency and collections.
Additionally, athenaOne offers patient engagement tools like communication and care features, which can improve your patient relationships. Their customer support provides training, resources, and support to drive your success. The solution is built for specialty needs, offering workflows that align with how clinicians think, leading to more complete patient charts and reduced documentation work through generative AI.
The result: a simpler way to provide care.
Key features:
- AI-powered athenaOne: An all-in-one solution that enhances clinical effectiveness, patient experience, and financial performance through intelligent automation.
- Tailorable EHR and Practice Management: Provides a flexible electronic health record system, plus robust medical billing and practice management software to boost collections.
- Comprehensive Patient Engagement: Includes communication and care tools designed to improve patient relationships and facilitate seamless interactions beyond encounters.
athenahealth features, pricing, & alternatives →
Verdict: athenahealth’s athenaOne stands out as a strong contender for the best electronic health record (EHR) software, particularly for small to medium-sized practices. With its AI-powered features, including tailored documentation and ambient notes, it directly addresses administrative burdens and clinician burnout. Plus, customers report seeing a 2-6% increase in collections and reduced overhead, proving its financial benefits.
3. eClinicalWorks
Struggling with complex EHR choices on a tight budget?
eClinicalWorks offers an AI-powered Electronic Health Record (EHR) system, designed to simplify your practice management and clinical workflows.
This means you can accurately assess risk and promote better outcomes through understanding disease patterns, addressing your need for data-driven insights.
Here’s how to simplify your administrative tasks.
eClinicalWorks V12 + AI reinvents your practice with features like Sunoh.ai for AI-powered clinical support. This includes AI Assistant and AI Automation, transforming how you handle everything from documentation to patient interactions.
Additionally, their patient engagement tools, like patient self-scheduling, check-in, telehealth, and secure messaging, reduce administrative burdens and enhance patient access. Plus, the Revenue Cycle Management (RCM) service boasts a 98% or higher first-pass acceptance rate, providing a better service at a lower price than your current provider, which directly addresses your budget concerns and desire for administrative cost savings. The healow Genie, an AI-powered contact center solution, helps answer patient calls around the clock, further streamlining operations and improving patient experience.
The result: a comprehensive, efficient, and compliant solution.
Key features:
- AI-Powered EHR: Reinvent your practice with Sunoh.ai, Image AI, AI Assistant, and AI Automation to streamline documentation and clinical support.
- Patient Engagement Tools: Empower your patients with self-scheduling, check-in, telehealth, and secure messaging, improving access and reducing staff workload.
- Revenue Cycle Management: Achieve a 98% or higher first-pass acceptance rate, significantly improving your financial efficiency and reducing administrative costs.
eClinicalWorks features, pricing, & alternatives →
Verdict: eClinicalWorks stands out as the best electronic health record (ehr) software for small to medium-sized practices seeking to automate clinical documentation and reduce administrative burdens. Its AI-powered features and robust RCM services help improve efficiency and financial outcomes, making it a powerful choice for growth-focused practices balancing budget and compliance.
4. NextGen Healthcare
Do EHR choices overwhelm your budget and team?
NextGen Healthcare offers integrated EHR solutions for practices of all sizes, from small clinics to large enterprises. This means you can enhance care quality, optimize operations, and achieve better financial outcomes.
Their award-winning platform drives efficiency with AI and automation, helping you tackle complex billing challenges and streamline workflows. You can confidently meet compliance and reporting needs.
Here’s how to simplify your EHR journey.
NextGen Healthcare helps optimize your practice’s financial performance through its Practice Management solution. This includes an AI Rules Engine to ensure precise claims and a clearinghouse to accelerate reimbursements.
Their Patient Experience suite features online visibility, self-scheduling, and digital forms, empowering patients and increasing access. Additionally, NextGen Mobile offers cloud-based EHR access from anywhere, reducing after-hours charting. Plus, with Ambient Assist, AI transforms doctor-patient conversations into structured notes, saving providers significant time daily.
You can also leverage robust interoperability and analytics for population health insights.
Key features:
- AI & Automation-Enhanced Solutions: Streamline documentation, reduce administrative burden, and optimize revenue cycle with AI-driven automation.
- Integrated Practice Management: Enhance financial performance through award-winning billing, clearinghouse, and collection tools, including an AI Rules Engine.
- Comprehensive Patient & Provider Experience: Offer self-scheduling, mobile EHR access, virtual visits, and AI-powered charting for seamless workflows.
NextGen Healthcare features, pricing, & alternatives →
Verdict: NextGen Healthcare stands out as the best electronic health record (ehr) software for small to medium-sized practices, providing integrated AI and automation to boost efficiency. Their “Ambient Assist” feature can save providers up to 2.5 hours per day on charting, directly addressing administrative burdens.
5. Tebra
Struggling with disconnected clinical and administrative workflows?
Tebra offers an EHR+ platform that combines your EHR with billing, scheduling, and reputation tools that communicate seamlessly.
This means you can streamline clinical documentation, helping you chart faster and more accurately, ultimately freeing you up to focus on patient care.
Here’s a unified solution for your practice.
Tebra integrates your core functions into one platform, eliminating the need to switch between tabs or chase down claims. It means less administrative burden and more focus on patient care.
The platform includes AI Note Assist, which helps generate clinical notes, alongside features like online scheduling, digital intake forms, and HIPAA-compliant two-way messaging, all designed to enhance your patient experience. Additionally, Tebra provides marketing tools for managing your online presence and attracting new patients, plus robust billing and payment solutions to accelerate reimbursements.
The result is a more efficient and profitable practice.
Key features:
- Integrated EHR+ platform: Connects your EHR with billing, scheduling, and patient communication tools for a streamlined, unified workflow.
- AI-powered automation: Utilizes AI for tasks like note generation, review replies, and administrative work, reducing errors and freeing up staff time.
- Comprehensive practice management: Simplifies medical billing, claims processing, and patient payments while boosting online visibility and patient engagement.
Tebra features, pricing, & alternatives →
Verdict: For clinical practice managers balancing budgets and compliance, Tebra stands out as a strong contender for the best electronic health record (EHR) software. Its integrated, AI-powered platform tackles common pain points like fragmented systems and administrative overload, as evidenced by a practice owner who stated, “I now have all the functionality I need in one system… Tebra has been the best experience.”
6. AdvancedMD
Are EHR choices creating budget and compliance headaches?
AdvancedMD offers a unified, cloud-based medical office software suite, ideal for independent practices. This means you can integrate practice management, EHR, and patient engagement tools, simplifying your operations.
You’ll find it streamlines business operations with an intuitive interface, improving productivity and reducing data entry while ensuring synchronized information is accessible across all roles.
This makes life simpler and more efficient.
AdvancedMD solves the challenge of workflow integration and compliance with its all-in-one approach. You get a paperless environment with anytime, anywhere access to patient histories and customizable templates designed for your specialty. Their AI strategy aims to deliver intelligent tools that enhance efficiency and elevate user experience. Additionally, the platform provides robust patient engagement tools, like self-service scheduling and automated reminders, reducing administrative overhead and boosting patient satisfaction. You also benefit from powerful reporting and analytics for financial performance, alongside secure cloud data storage powered by AWS with multi-factor authentication.
Reduce administrative burdens and improve outcomes.
Key features:
- Unified workflow experience: Synchronizes practice management, EHR, and patient engagement for all roles, improving productivity and reducing manual data entry for your staff.
- Specialty-specific customization: Offers custom-tailored workflow solutions including billing codes, clinical templates, and subnotes designed for single and multi-specialty practices.
- Cloud-based security & accessibility: Provides a 100% cloud-based platform on AWS with robust security, multi-factor authentication, and data redundancy for anywhere, anytime access.
AdvancedMD features, pricing, & alternatives →
Verdict: AdvancedMD stands out as the best Electronic Health Record (EHR) software for growth-focused clinical practice managers, offering a unified, cloud-based solution that automates clinical documentation, streamlines patient flow, and provides deep financial reporting. Its specialty-specific templates and comprehensive security measures help you meet compliance requirements, making it ideal for independent practices aiming to scale and optimize patient care.
7. Practice Fusion
Overwhelmed by EHR choices and tight budgets?
Practice Fusion offers an intuitive EHR and billing services platform, specifically designed to help independent practices thrive.
This means you can optimize efficiency and focus on delivering optimal patient care rather than administrative burdens. You’re supported so you can support your patients.
Ready to streamline your practice?
Practice Fusion empowers you to enhance your revenue stream and reduce staff burden with their integrated EHR and billing services. This includes certified, advanced e-prescribing capabilities, ensuring your patients get medications faster.
You can streamline charting, connect efficiently, and optimize patient care using their easy-to-use system, which helps you concentrate on healthcare services. Additionally, their value-add options provide patient engagement tools and chart retrieval services, further reducing administrative burnout. This customer-driven approach ensures the technology scales alongside your growing practice.
Your practice can truly benefit.
Key features:
- Intuitive EHR and Billing Services: Enhance revenue and reduce staff burden by combining electronic health records with efficient billing and e-prescribing capabilities.
- Optimized Patient Care Focus: Leverage an easy-to-use EHR to streamline charting and focus more on delivering efficient, high-quality healthcare services for patients.
- Customer-Driven Scalability: Benefit from a platform designed with real customer insights, ensuring the technology scales and adapts as your independent practice expands its operations.
Practice Fusion features, pricing, & alternatives →
Verdict: If you’re seeking the best electronic health record (EHR) software that combines affordability—starting at $199/month per provider—with a human-centric approach, Practice Fusion offers an ideal solution. Their free 2-week trial allows you to experience streamlined charting, efficient billing, and advanced e-prescribing, making it perfect for independent practices focused on patient care.
8. Veradigm
Do EHR choices overwhelm your practice’s budget and workflow? Veradigm offers Electronic Health Records and Practice Management Software. These tools simplify scheduling, billing, and clinical documentation. This means your practice can deliver its best clinical and financial performance. The result is streamlined operations and improved patient care.
Veradigm’s EHR Software adapts to your clinical documentation and workflow needs. This includes features like ePrescribe with EPCS for controlled substances. Their cloud-based Practice Fusion EHR is intuitive and reliable for small practices. Additionally, Veradigm offers AI Patient Scheduling Software to automate and optimize appointments, reducing administrative burdens. Plus, a patient engagement platform integrates with a mobile-first approach.
To truly leverage your health data, understanding data discovery tools can unlock actionable insights.
Key features:
- Integrated Practice Management: Simplified software for effortless scheduling, billing, and claims processing to reduce administrative burden.
- Adaptable EHR Software: Supports your clinical documentation and workflow needs with features like ePrescribing for controlled substances.
- AI Patient Scheduling: Automate and optimize patient appointments, enhancing efficiency and minimizing staff training time for growing practices.
Veradigm features, pricing, & alternatives →
Verdict: If your small to medium-sized healthcare provider seeks to clarify choices and budget for the best Electronic Health Record (EHR) software, Veradigm provides adaptable solutions. Their AI-driven scheduling and comprehensive practice management capabilities automate tasks, leading to reduced administrative burden and improved clinical performance.
9. Greenway Health
Struggling with EHR choices and tight budgets?
Greenway Health offers a single-platform solution covering clinical, financial, patient engagement, and analytics. This means you can simplify your day, connect patients to their care, and boost financial performance.
Their AI-driven tools streamline documentation and workflows, helping you reduce administrative burdens and enhance accuracy.
Here’s how Greenway Health tackles common practice pain points.
Their cloud-based solutions, powered by AWS, offer unmatched security, performance, and scalability. You’ll find automated clinical documentation, minimizing manual entry and freeing you to focus on patient care. Additionally, features like online scheduling and digital registration enhance patient access, making it easier for your patients to connect with your practice. Plus, self-service payment solutions improve collections and patient satisfaction through a flexible, integrated financial system. The result is a connected healthcare experience empowering successful practices.
Key features:
- AI-powered Clinical Documentation: Streamlines workflows and minimizes manual entry, enhancing accuracy and allowing providers to focus more on patient interaction.
- Integrated Financial Management: Optimizes revenue cycle management with tools like Greenway Health Pay for improved collections and patient satisfaction.
- Comprehensive Patient Engagement: Offers online scheduling, digital registration, and patient portals to connect patients to their care and foster stronger relationships.
Greenway Health features, pricing, & alternatives →
Verdict: For practices seeking the best electronic health record (EHR) software, Greenway Health offers a robust, cloud-based platform designed to automate clinical documentation, simplify financial processes, and enhance patient engagement, making it ideal for independent ambulatory practices.
Conclusion
Making the right EHR choice is critical.
I know you’re balancing tight budgets and compliance, all while trying to find a system that actually simplifies workflows, not complicates them.
The wrong choice doesn’t just waste money. It can severely disrupt patient care and burn out your entire team. This one decision truly impacts every part of your practice.
So here is my top recommendation.
After all my research, Epic clearly stands out. It unifies clinical and administrative operations, directly addressing your need for a streamlined, compliant system.
Its ability to automate documentation while sharing data in real-time is a complete game-changer for any clinic. That’s why it’s the best Electronic Health Record (EHR) software.
While exploring practice management solutions, my guide on best optometry software offers further insights.
I’d suggest you visit the Epic website to see how its integrated solutions can bring clarity and control back to your practice.
Your practice deserves that powerful clarity.
