MEDITECH Expanse 2025 Ranks #1 Among Community Hospitals

A new Black Book survey of 128 community hospitals (<150 beds) ranked MEDITECH Expanse as the top EHR in its segment. Hospitals cited strong vendor reliability, implementation support, and high client retention as key strengths. Areas for improvement include interoperability (fax and manual workflows still dominate), financial strain from system upgrades, and clinician feedback that AI tools have not yet delivered significant time savings.

Six Pitfalls to Avoid in EHR Implementations

A recent Advisory piece underscores the most common mistakes organizations make during EHR rollouts: lack of clinician buy-in, underestimated training and time commitments, weak stakeholder alignment, failure to customize for workflows, inadequate testing, and insufficient optimization after go-live. Each of these missteps carries substantial cost in both dollars and morale, often leading to dissatisfaction with systems that could otherwise perform well.

Why It Matters

• Rankings as signals, not the full picture: MEDITECH’s recognition shows how reliability and client retention influence perception, but interoperability and measurable clinician impact remain unresolved challenges. Leaders should probe beneath “#1” rankings to understand how systems will scale and deliver ROI in their environment.
• Financial planning around upgrades: Community hospitals report strain from migrations, but early adopters of Expanse are beginning to show accelerated revenue cycle efficiency. Modeling both short-term costs and medium-term returns is critical for CIOs managing limited budgets.
• Interoperability gaps persist: Faxing and manual data exchange are still prevalent in smaller hospitals, underscoring the need for contracts and project plans that prioritize native interoperability and measurable improvements in data exchange.
• Implementation success depends on people and process: The “six pitfalls” remind us that technology alone isn’t the barrier. Training, clinician engagement, workflow alignment, and post-go-live optimization are the real determinants of success. CIOs must allocate time, money, and leadership focus here.
• AI still hasn’t delivered on its promise for clinicians: While executives remain optimistic, frontline staff report limited time savings. Investments in AI should include strong UX design, workflow integration, and real-world metrics of time saved, not just vendor assurances.