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EMR Systems List: Hospital, Outpatient and Behavioral Health EHRs

The ScribeMD Team ·

You're three years into your own practice and the EMR you picked on day one is starting to pinch. Notes take too long, the patient portal confuses people, and your biller keeps asking for workarounds. Before you start booking vendor demos, you want a plain list of what's out there and which systems are built for a practice like yours.

This EMR systems list groups the best-known EMR and EHR systems by the kind of organization they're built for: hospitals, independent outpatient practices, behavioral health, and open-source options. It describes what each system is known for. It doesn't rank them or quote prices, because pricing depends on practice size and contract, and changes often. Check current details with each vendor.

EMR vs EHR: is there a difference?

In everyday use the terms are interchangeable, and most vendors use both. The formal distinction, used by the U.S. Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC), is:

  • EMR (electronic medical record): a digital version of the paper chart in one practice.
  • EHR (electronic health record): a record built to be shared across organizations, such as labs, specialists, hospitals and pharmacies.

Nearly every system below is an EHR in that sense. Many also include practice management (scheduling, billing, claims), a patient portal and e-prescribing.

Hospital and health system EHRs

These are the large enterprise systems. Independent clinicians usually meet them when they have hospital privileges or join a larger group.

  • Epic: the most widely used EHR in large U.S. hospitals and academic medical centers. Known for its MyChart patient portal and its Care Everywhere record sharing between Epic organizations.
  • Oracle Health (formerly Cerner): Oracle acquired Cerner in 2022. Used by many hospitals and health systems, and by U.S. federal agencies, including the VA's EHR modernization program.
  • MEDITECH: a long-standing hospital EHR, common in community and mid-sized hospitals. Its current platform is called Expanse.
  • Altera Digital Health: formed from the former Allscripts hospital business. Its EHRs include Sunrise and Paragon.

EHRs for independent and outpatient practices

This is the category most private practices choose from. Look closely at specialty fit and billing tools.

  • athenahealth (athenaOne): a cloud-based EHR with practice management and revenue cycle services, widely used by ambulatory practices.
  • eClinicalWorks: a large ambulatory EHR used by practices of many sizes, with practice management and a patient engagement app.
  • NextGen Healthcare: an ambulatory EHR and practice management system with specialty-specific content.
  • Greenway Health: ambulatory EHRs including Intergy and Prime Suite, plus revenue cycle services.
  • ModMed (Modernizing Medicine): specialty-focused EHRs for fields such as dermatology, ophthalmology and orthopedics.
  • Tebra: formed when Kareo and PatientPop combined. Aimed at independent practices, with EHR, billing and patient marketing tools.
  • AdvancedMD: cloud-based EHR and practice management for small and mid-sized practices.
  • DrChrono: a cloud EHR known for its iPad and mobile apps.
  • Elation Health: an EHR built around primary care, popular with independent and direct primary care practices.
  • Practice Fusion: a cloud EHR for small practices, now part of Veradigm (formerly Allscripts).

Behavioral health EHRs

Therapy and psychiatry practices often need different note types, such as DAP notes and treatment plans, plus telehealth and client portals.

  • SimplePractice: practice management and EHR widely used by solo and small-group therapists.
  • TherapyNotes: EHR and billing for behavioral health practices.
  • Valant: behavioral health EHR for group practices, including psychiatry.
  • ICANotes: behavioral health EHR known for structured, menu-driven notes.
  • Netsmart: EHRs for larger behavioral health, human services and post-acute organizations.

Open-source EHRs

  • OpenEMR: a free, open-source EHR and practice management system. The software is free, but you pay for hosting, setup, support and security, either in staff time or to a vendor.
  • VistA: the VA's long-running EHR, developed by the federal government and in the public domain. The VA is replacing it with the Oracle Health federal EHR.

How to choose an EMR system

A long list is only useful if you narrow it down. These questions eliminate most options quickly:

  1. Does it fit your specialty? Ask to see real templates for your most common visits, not a generic demo.
  2. How long does a typical note take? Time a full visit note during the demo. Charting time is where most clinicians feel an EMR every day.
  3. What does billing look like? Check claims, eligibility checks, statements, and whether billing is built in or an add-on.
  4. Who do you need to exchange records with? Labs, local hospitals, referral partners. Ask how results and referrals actually flow.
  5. Can you get your data out? Ask how a full export works before you sign, not when you're leaving.
  6. What's the total cost? Include setup, data migration, training, add-ons and per-provider fees.
  7. Is it secure and compliant? Ask for the vendor's business associate agreement (BAA) and security documentation.

Where an AI scribe fits with your EMR

Switching EMRs is a big project. If your main complaint is documentation time, it can make sense to fix that first and keep the system you have.

An AI scribe works alongside your EMR. It listens to the visit (with the patient's consent), drafts the note in your template, and you review, edit and sign before it goes into the chart. ScribeMD drafts a note in under 30 seconds after the visit and has 35+ EHR integrations, Epic and Cerner included. Its dictation button also works inside any app with a text field, so it can be used with EMRs that don't have a direct integration.

The tradeoffs are real. You need a consent process, you still have to read every draft, and the first few weeks involve more editing while you tune templates. For more on how this works, see our guide to an AI scribe for doctors.

To see ScribeMD working with your EMR, book a demo.