Latin America EMR 2020
A Region-Specific Look at Buying Trends and Customer Satisfaction

Brazil-Focused MV & Philips Fastest Growing in Latin America; everis & i.s.h.med Expanding Footprints in Spanish-Speaking Markets

MV is the most frequently selected vendor in Latin America, gaining more than 50% more hospitals—largely in Brazil—than any other vendor over the last five years. Considered by both small organizations and large academic health systems, MV is viewed as offering robust functionality. Philips has gained the second highest number of hospitals over the last five years, expanding outside Brazil into new Latin American markets (Mexico and Argentina) and countries outside the region (e.g., Australia, Germany, and Japan). SPDATA has grown third fastest in Brazil, mostly in small hospitals. everis, an NTT DATA Company, has seen significant growth in Spanish-speaking Latin America, with over 90% of their customer base signing in the last five years. Over 75% of the hospitals impacted by these new wins are tied to two major regional public EMR deployments, one in Mexico and one in Argentina. Cerner i.s.h.med’s recent energy has come among private healthcare groups in countries such as Argentina and Peru. Other vendors in Brazil—e.g., Dedalus MedView (acquired from Agfa HealthCare), Pixeon, and TOTVS—and Spanish-speaking Latin America—e.g., DXC Technology xHIS and InterSystems—have had relatively few wins over the last five years.

SPDATA Offers Top Experience for Small Hospitals; Pixeon Customers Report Implementation Struggles

Small hospitals in Brazil that don’t need as much functionality or don’t have the resources to consider MV or Philips often choose more price-conscious alternatives, such as SPDATA and Pixeon. This report is the first time KLAS has measured SPDATA customer satisfaction, and the initial feedback is positive. Customers feel the system adequately meets the needs of smaller organizations and is a good value (often priced at one-quarter to one-third of the overall cost of more robust solutions). SPDATA also stands out for their support; customers describe the vendor as responsive to concerns and good at keeping commitments. Pixeon customers report a less consistent experience—while one-third of respondents are satisfied, many others say Pixeon overpromised on the system’s capabilities, leaving customers with post-implementation challenges that have persisted for years. This has created a backlog of support tickets and fueled the perception that Pixeon does not follow through on promises and is not worth the money.

InterSystems Strong in Chile; Philips Excelling in Mexico

Expanding into new countries comes with a significant amount of work for both vendors and their first customers in those countries. Thus, vendors whose regional teams are able to focus on fewer countries generally have more satisfied customers than those with a broader footprint. InterSystems is currently marketed only in Chile, where the vendor has a strong presence in the public sector (stemming from the country’s SIDRA project); additionally, they are currently being implemented by the largest private healthcare group in Chile. Customers say InterSystems has strong expertise and functionality that meets local needs. They also report strong collaboration and the best support experience in Spanish-speaking Latin America. Philips signed their first Latin America customers in Mexico in 2014 and now has 5–6 customers (20 private hospitals) in the country. These customers report high levels of partnership from Philips in translating and localizing the product to Mexico’s regulatory specifications and in being extremely engaged throughout the implementation. They also report high satisfaction after go-live. Philips has recently expanded to Argentina, their third country in Latin America.

everis Expansion Leading to Growing Pains for Customers; Development Slow for DXC Technology xHIS

everis has grown more rapidly than any other EMR vendor in Spanish-speaking Latin America, leading to growing pains for customers in Argentina and Mexico, including implementation challenges, missed timelines, poor communication, and undelivered functionality. On the plus side, customers have seen some improvement over the last year as the vendor’s expertise has grown and they have devoted more resources to the region. DXC Technology xHIS was one of the first EMRs deployed in the region, and it has customers in multiple countries. Customers feel development has not kept pace with their organizations’ evolving needs, and support responsiveness is a concern for both those who work with the vendor directly and those who contract with local resellers.

Cerner i.s.h.med and MV Meeting Most Needs

With customers in six Latin American countries, Cerner i.s.h.med has a broader footprint than most EMRs in the region. Customers appreciate the robust solution and its tight integration with SAP, and they look forward to the S/4HANA release. The solution is sold via SAP resellers, which comes with some trade-offs, including less responsive support and inadequate training. Additionally, some customers feel isolated from Cerner and thus lack visibility into the platform’s development road map. MV has been expanding outside of Brazil over the last six years and is now used by a handful of hospitals in six additional Latin American countries. The solution is viewed as strong overall, and customers in Spanish-speaking Latin America report stronger partnership with MV than their Brazilian counterparts. Customers would like stronger native Spanish-speaking resources and more localization of the system.

What Does “Limited Data” Mean?

When measuring customer satisfaction, KLAS requires that the sample size for any given product reach certain thresholds before data can be reported on. In research dedicated to a specific region, such as Latin America, sample sizes of 6 or higher are considered fully rated, and sample sizes of 3–5 are marked as limited data, via an asterisk (*) or other indicator. If the sample size is less than 3, no score is shown. There are a variety of reasons that sample sizes may be small—e.g., some products are used in only a small number of facilities, and some vendors are resistant to providing client lists. Additionally, it should be noted that a vendor’s sample size may vary from chart to chart as some respondents choose not to answer particular questions. Note that when a vendor 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.

KLAS Market Share Data

In addition to the customer satisfaction data described above, KLAS also tracks market share and buying trends for the global EMR market.

How Is EMR Market Share Measured?

The market share data reported in this study is based on hospital EMR purchasing trends published in KLAS’ global market share reports. It indicates market share status as of December 31, 2019, and does not include details on contracts signed in 2020 (though some historical market share data was adjusted as new information came to light during KLAS’ research for this current report). A simplified version of KLAS’ market share methodology is outlined below. For the full methodology, please see “Global (Non-US) EMR Market Share 2020.”