Post-Acute Care 2015
Which Vendors Best Fill Post-Acute Care Gaps?

1. CERNER, EPIC, AND MCKESSON ARE MOST CONSIDERED ENTERPRISE SOLUTIONS, BUT CHALLENGES PERSIST FOR ALL

Acute care organizations turn to enterprise vendors as a solution to fill in missing pieces of the care continuum. While Cerner and MEDITECH provide both homecare and long-term care offerings, there are challenges. Cerner users report poor functionality and product development, and MEDITECH users report nonresponsive support teams. Epic’s homecare product is integrated, and though some providers voice concerns around functionality gaps in reporting, many are pleased with Epic’s product enhancements and level of communication. Epic has a LTC product, but no customers are live. Both Allscripts and McKesson offer homecare products that are not integrated into their core EMR. Version 13 has left McKesson users frustrated, and Allscripts Homecare users report clunky workflows.

2. BEST-OF-BREED HOMECARE VENDORS OUTPERFORM ENTERPRISE VENDORS IN HOMECARE AND LONG-TERM CARE

For the more cost-inhibited standalone facilities, best-of-breed vendors are still the likely choice. Homecare vendors Thornberry, Delta, and Kinnser have the highest overall homecare performance scores largely due to robust functionality and strong customer relationships. Long-term care vendors HealthMEDX and MatrixCare deliver strong functionality, while PointClickCare excels in agile delivery of new technology. When it comes to broader interoperability with other provider entities, most best-of-breed vendors have failed to show true progress.

3. PROVIDERS TARGET TELEHEALTH & ANALYTICS FOR THEIR POST-ACUTE CARE STRATEGIES

Two-thirds of hospitals and homecare agencies identify telehealth as the next purchase for their care strategies—and Cardiocom, Honeywell, and Philips are most considered due to large market share. Providers see telehealth as critical to monitoring larger populations and managing readmissions. However, for LTC providers, analytics is the next purchase. Not wanting to bring in thirdparty applications, most providers look to their core clinical vendor for analytics needs. HealthMEDX, MatrixCare, and PointClickCare are the most considered by their customers.

4. NO VENDOR STANDS OUT FOR HELPING EXECUTE POST-ACUTE CARE PROVICERS' STRATEGIC PLANS

One-third of homecare and long-term care providers are identified as progressive when it comes to having goforward, competitive plans—but no vendor stands out as a leader in helping execute customers’ strategic plans. Progressive homecare and long-term care organizations are focused on building hospital relationships, fostering data exchange, and becoming true partners in their communities. The majority (two-thirds) of post–acute care providers are identified as lagging in their strategic plans—most of their efforts involve simply reporting readmission stats, increasing market efforts, and expanding services to capture more market.

Project Manager
Robert Ellis