How KLAS Listens to Critical Feedback

We at KLAS have had an amazing group of provider executives on our advisory board for over 20 years. We strive to make every decision according to how well it would improve our ability to serve the provider community, and we take that responsibility seriously. We are so grateful for advisory board members who help us make those decisions and assist in our mission to improve the world’s healthcare.

Recently, KLAS and our advisory board had the opportunity to listen to some critical feedback from a vendor executive. We were appreciative and open to this genuine and honest feedback and to the opportunity it gave us to improve.

However, I would like to address one point that stuck with me. This vendor executive expressed some frustration toward the fact that KLAS uses a vendor ranking system that is not statistically significant because vendors are sometimes separated by a mere decimal point. This is true. Over the years, I have had similar discussions with other vendors several times. So why does KLAS continue to include decimal points in vendor scores?

Provider Needs

Having had this discussion three times in the last 10 years, our advisory board, with completely new executives on it each time, has always said the same thing along these lines: We are not stupid, and we want every bit of information that we can get. We understand how the KLAS process works; heck, we participate in it. So please just tell us what you found.

When asked whether KLAS should give a Best in KLAS award to a product that is not statistically differentiated from the competition, providers again tell us that they are not stupid and that they don’t walk around like zombies buying from anyone who shows us a Best in KLAS award. (These are not actual quotes from our board—we know of no actual zombies on our advisory board.)

We recognize that providers use KLAS’ research as one of many data points in their decision-making journey. As is only right, HIT decisions are not based on any one element; providers validate their decisions using multiple resources.

So, as our advisory board continues to champion that decision making, the decimal points will remain.

Not Just About Rankings

Our advisory board makes it clear that they are looking for two things when it comes to the vendors that they work with. The ranking is one of those things, but being able to speak to the momentum or market energy of vendors may be even more important. To provide this data, we try to answer these kinds of questions:

Is this vendor improving with a new executive team?

Have recent sales overwhelmed this vendor?

Has the vendor been steady in their performance over the last 3–4 years?

As we continue to try and answer these questions, we also try to give as much context around the solution as possible. It is clear that this deeper context, alongside the rankings, provides the valuable information that many providers search for when trying to make these complex HIT decisions.

At the end of the day, we want and need your feedback. KLAS data is only as good as the candid knowledge we gather from providers like you. As we grow and improve at KLAS, we want to continue to evolve the ratings to be even more effective and, perhaps most importantly, to use an advisory board of your peers to make these kinds of decisions.

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