For doctors who are considering transitioning to electronic health records, selecting the best EHR system for their practice's unique needs could play a major role in the success or failure of the transition. A new survey suggests that many physicians are making the right decisions.

The results - which were published in Family Practice Management, a journal of the American Academy of Family Physicians - showed that 78 percent of practices surveyed were either satisfied or very satisfied with the ability of their EHR system to meet their practice's specific needs.

Another area the vast majority of survey respondents were satisfied with was their system's ePrescribing features. A total of 70 percent reported high levels of satisfaction.

However, the report did show room for improvement. Just under 40 percent of respondents agreed or strongly agreed with a statement saying they would purchase their system again. This means that the 60 percent who would not make the same decision could have benefited from doing a little more research by checking references and speaking with other physicians already using particular systems. 

There may be many reasons why a practice would feel as though they would choose another vendor if they had the opportunity to make the decision again. However, providers that receive strong support from their vendor rarely feel this way. Technical support was listed as one of the top concerns among respondents to a separate survey conducted by Black Book Rankings.