3 Reasons Most EHR Vendors Will Be Out Of Business By 2017

The crowded field of electronic health record vendors likely will be slashed to less than half by 2017, or by the implementation of Meaningful Use Stage 3--whichever comes first--according to a new Black Book Market Research report. Most vendors are likely to go out of business, merge or be acquired, according to the survey of 880 EHR consultants, analysts, managers and support team members.

The report follows up on another report released in February that called 2013 the "year of the great EHR switch" due to user dissatisfaction.

Nine in 10 respondents said that most vendors won't still be around for Meaningful Use Stage 3. That doesn't mean only the big players will survive, though. There are still more than 600 smaller vendors jockeying for a piece of the action.