What’s Changed with Best in KLAS?
The Best in KLAS 2021 report is now available! Congratulations to all the winners of the Best in KLAS awards.
As some of you may have noticed, this year’s report features a prominent change that we hope will positively impact how Best in KLAS awards are perceived and shared throughout the industry. I will outline the change that was made and why it was made, but first let’s see how we got to where we are today.
The Early Days
Back in the year 1999 KLAS published a report called “The Top 20” which highlighted the performance of vendors in the industry. We took all the feedback from the healthcare providers we had spoken to over the previous year and compiled it into this end-of-year study. This report gave us an opportunity to recognize who was currently performing the best for their customers.
At that time, our Top 20 report was the only place you could find this sort of specialized market research for healthcare IT. As we added more market segments over the years, the Top 20 Report became the Best in KLAS report.
Until this year, we felt the need to differentiate between the market segments that had the broadest operational and clinical impact on healthcare organizations versus other, smaller segments. So, we gave Best in KLAS awards to those segments that had the broadest impact in a facility. For other segments that were still important, but more niche, we gave Category Leader awards.
The Change
This year we have officially retired the Category Leader award. Instead, we are now giving Best in KLAS awards to every market segment that qualifies.
A market segment qualifies when:
- At least 2 products meet KLAS’ minimum Konfidence levels of research.
- The most prominent solutions are represented in that segment.
For example, if there is a market segment with 4 prominent solutions but we only have 1 of those prominent solutions and maybe 1 or 2 smaller solutions represented in our research, we would likely forgo giving out a Best in KLAS award in that segment. Why? For the simple reason that, if we were to give an award in that segment, we wouldn’t be providing the industry an accurate picture of that segment.
We feel that retiring the Category Leader award more clearly communicates our intent behind Best in KLAS. A Best in KLAS award is a signal to the healthcare industry that they should expect greatness from that vendor. The Category Leader award meant the same thing to KLAS, but perhaps got somewhat lost in translation for the industry.
The Best in KLAS designation is an important one. It is industry recognized and providers truly hold Best in KLAS winners to a higher standard. With this change, we wanted to make sure that any of the vendors in a former Category Leader market segment had the same opportunity to be recognized as Best in KLAS when they are in fact the best in their segment.
Our Commitment
We know that the Best in KLAS report is a key decision point for providers when making a vendor selection. They know they can trust the data because it comes from their peers. Best in KLAS indicates comparative vendor performance and can give providers more confidence in selecting a potential vendor. KLAS doesn’t interject our own opinions into the process.
That is why vendors can also put stock in Best in KLAS awards—they come directly from your customers! We love the energy that comes from a vendor that’s trying to be better. We love when you look at the scores and try to figure out how to improve for your healthcare provider customers. It’s a great thing that helps spur you to improve while also improving the decision-making ability of providers.
For those at KLAS Research, we view Best in KLAS as our way of being held accountable to our healthcare provider partners and vendors. For those providers who give feedback each year, this report is KLAS saying, “You’ve taken time to share your feedback with us, despite being incredibly busy, and this report is what we’ve done with all the feedback you’ve given us. Thank you!”