Cardiovascular Structured Reporting 2018
Who Can Set Clinicians Up For Success?

Driving Clinician Satisfaction: INFINITT and Merge Offer Strongest Clinician Experience

INFINITT and Merge lead in the key areas that most affect the clinician experience: end-user training, functionality, and relationship. INFINITT’s training personnel provide hands-on, personal service—which encourages customization and template use—and training resources outline the benefits of structured reporting. INFINITT also stands out for supporting clinician buy-in. Respondents feel INFINITT listens to users and excels at collaborating with clinicians and IT staff. Few INFINITT customers complain about product issues.

Merge customers often describe the cardiology and hemodynamics systems as Merge’s standout solutions. Merge’s clinician training is among the strongest of any measured vendor’s; their ongoing training helps hold customers accountable and assists those who struggle with adoption of structured reporting. Traditionally, an excellent account management program has helped Merge customers develop and execute an organization road map; however, satisfaction with account management has declined somewhat since Merge was acquired by IBM.

Epic: Integration and Support Are Strong; Weak Training and Functionality Drive Clinician Frustration

Epic’s cardiology solution integrates well with the Epic EMR, and customers benefit from responsive support; these strengths contribute to high consideration from potential customer organizations and a feeling among customer executives that Epic is a solid overall partner.

However, when it comes to delivering a good experience for clinicians, customers report significant challenges with training and functionality. Clinicians want Epic to provide deeper cardiology expertise, a stronger implementation methodology, training that is less piecemeal, and more help getting templates properly built and customized for greater clinician buy-in. The workflow, functionality, and documentation in Cupid are also opportunities for improving the clinician experience; while Epic has made steady improvements to the functionality, slow development has caused some concern among customers.

Proactive Relationships Lacking in Cardiology Today

Strong relationships are key to success with cardiology solutions, but relationship gaps are common. Only INFINITT and Epic customers consistently report that support resources are responsive and quick to resolve challenges and understand the customer organization. Customers of all other vendors regularly report relationship challenges. Change Healthcare, Fujifilm, and GE Healthcare customers say that responsiveness lags and that complex support structures can slow down problem resolution. Interviewed Philips customers report they aren’t kept in the loop on upgrades or changes and lack a transparent view of system capabilities. Agfa HealthCare, LUMEDX, and Siemens fall short in proactively supporting clinicians through training and other strategies and instead play catch-up to address customer needs.

“[Our vendor’s] support is suffering, and their communication is lacking. [The vendor] just isn’t involved in their software. They are absent. We just don’t get what we need from them.” —Director