HIT Staffing 2021
Which Firms Consistently Deliver?

iMethods, CSI, Medix & Optimum Able to Quickly Deliver High-Quality Resources for Large Projects

iMethods and CSI Healthcare IT deliver high satisfaction for large and small projects across a variety of software platforms. iMethods offers a broad bench of resources with a wide variety of skill sets. Clients say the firm partners to understand their needs and appropriately scope projects. The firm is praised for a positive top-down culture and for making sure consultants are a good fit and drive outcomes. Consultants from CSI Healthcare IT’s large bench are described as reliable and able to hit the ground running with many EMRs and BI tools. A couple of respondents note that it can take longer than they would like to replace resources that aren’t a good fit. Validated mostly for Epic projects, Medix and Optimum Healthcare IT are able to tackle large engagements. Medix’s focus on Epic enables them to provide large numbers of high-quality resources for a variety of Epic modules and projects, and some consultants can be hired directly. Optimum Healthcare IT’s consultants are seen as highly knowledgeable and able to consistently get results. Clients wish they were more proactive in sharing guidance and best practices.

ettain health (formerly Leidos Health) is also chosen for large projects; overall satisfaction is below the market’s high average. ettain health is seen as having a large pool of talent, and clients often praise the consultants for sharing guidance and best practices. Turnover has been an occasional problem since ettain health acquired Leidos, and a few clients feel the firm’s initial placements missed the mark.

Less Consistent Execution Brings Down Overall Satisfaction with HCI Group, TEKsystems, and HCTec

HIT staffing firms tend to execute very well for clients, leading to the market seeing high overall satisfaction. Clients of The HCI Group, TEKsystems, and HCTec report a few execution misses, leading to slightly lower overall satisfaction compared to competitors. More satisfied clients of The HCI Group describe the firm as a preferred partner, citing the helpfulness of the firm’s resources. The 30% of clients who are dissatisfied report rude or unhelpful account managers or say the firm focuses too much on sales. Clients who use TEKsystems for Epic projects often describe their representatives as responsive and proactive. Organizations that use the firm for non-Epic projects are less likely to report strong success, with clients citing consultant productivity as a challenge. When TEKsystems resources need to be replaced, it is often due to a lack of needed technical skills; in these cases, TEKsystems is willing to provide a replacement. HCTec provides resources for a variety of projects across many software platforms and is most often engaged for projects requiring a smaller number of resources. Staff members are often described as solid performers. The most common issues reported by the firm’s less satisfied clients include a lack of executive involvement and delays in replacing resources that aren’t a good fit.

Futura Mobility and Prominence Stand Out for Smaller Engagements

Futura Mobility and Prominence were validated mostly for work with large academic hospitals as well as small or standalone hospitals, and these organizations report very high satisfaction with the firms. Futura Mobility is often engaged for Epic resources, including application analysts and builders. Clients report that their consultants, who are highly vetted, come with both soft skills and technical expertise. Prominence clients praise the firm’s Epic resources, and the firm is also brought in for some BI work. Clients describe the firm as a long-term partner who provides a significant amount of value and expertise.

A Note about Epic
Epic Supply Shop is validated mostly for smaller projects, and clients praise the vendor’s expertise and experience with their own software. They appreciate Epic’s encouragement of best practices and their Gold Star program recommendations. Some note that Epic tends to overestimate a project’s cost, meaning engagements end up coming in under budget. One complaint voiced by some respondents is that consultants’ knowledge of Epic’s software can be siloed to specific modules.

Strong Partnership a Factor in Tangible Outcomes from Health Data Movers and Galen Healthcare Solutions

In the HIT staffing market, provider organizations view their firm as having delivered tangible outcomes when the firm is able to provide strong resources with the required skill sets. Health Data Movers’ executives partner well with clients to make sure candidates are well matched, and they adjust things as needed to ensure a project’s success. Galen Healthcare Solutions is often described as a good partner who proactively checks in to make sure clients’ needs are being met. They are seen as providing good value and as being able to consistently provide strong resources with the needed expertise—no clients report having to replace a Galen consultant. Futura Mobility and Prominence also excel at driving outcomes. The HCI Group, HCTec, and TEKsystems are the least likely to be seen as partners. Areas for improvement with these firms have already been discussed above.

About This Report

Each year, KLAS interviews thousands of healthcare professionals about the IT products and services their organizations use. These interviews are conducted using a standard quantitative evaluation, and the scores and commentary collected are shared in reports like this one and online in real time so that other healthcare professionals can benefit from their peers’ experiences. The questions from the standard evaluation are organized into five customer experience pillars—loyalty, operations, relationship, services, and value.

To supplement the customer experience insights gathered with the standard evaluation, KLAS also used a separate, supplemental evaluation to interview a smaller sample of customers regarding issues specific to the HIT staffing market. This evaluation asked respondents to rate (1) how well their firm matches resources to client needs, (2) how quickly the firm is able to fill requested roles, and (3) how often resources end up needing to be replaced.

The data in this report comes from both evaluation types and was collected over the last 18 months; the number of unique responding organizations for each firm and evaluation type is given in the chart below.

What Does “Limited Data” Mean?

Some services are used in only a small number of facilities, some firms are resistant to providing client lists, and some respondents choose not to answer particular questions. Thus a firm’s sample size may vary from question to question and may not reach KLAS’ required threshold of 6 unique respondents. When a firm’s sample size for a particular question is less than 6, the score for that question is marked with an asterisk (*) or otherwise designated as “limited data.” If the sample size is less than 3, no score is shown. Note that when a firm has a low number of reporting sites, the possibility exists for KLAS scores to change significantly as new surveys are collected.

Overall scores are measured on a 100-point scale and represent the weighted average of several yes/no questions as well as other questions scored on a 9-point scale.