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2020 BEST IN KLAS
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New
Phynd:
Emerging Technology Spotlight 2020
Emerging Technology Spotlight 2020
This Spotlight report focuses on
Phynd, a solution for provider data management. KLAS Spotlight reports draw on
the feedback of early adopters to answer common questions provider
organizations have when considering emerging, disruptive, or innovative technology.
By revealing which product features and functionalities are actually in use,
exploring customers’ expected outcomes, and capturing early satisfaction data,
Spotlight reports make it possible for provider organizations to separate fact
from fiction.
New
Epic Ambulatory 2020—Community Connect:
The Reality of Community Connect vs. Direct Contracting
The Reality of Community Connect vs. Direct Contracting
Because of Epic’s presence in the healthcare market and their record of strong performance, many standalone (i.e., not associated with a hospital) midsize to large ambulatory organizations have chosen or are seriously considering Epic’s platform. These organizations have two options: contract directly with Epic for an independent instance of the solution, or contract with a local hospital/IDN under the Community Connect model. This research—KLAS’ first look at the differences between these approaches on the ambulatory side—includes two main findings from standalone ambulatory organizations:
(1) With direct contracting, Epic delivers a highly satisfactory experience for midsize to large ambulatory organizations.
(2) Those on Community Connect, who rely on their host organization for support, tend to be considerably less satisfied and fault Epic for allowing host organizations to deliver an experience below Epic’s usual standard.
(1) With direct contracting, Epic delivers a highly satisfactory experience for midsize to large ambulatory organizations.
(2) Those on Community Connect, who rely on their host organization for support, tend to be considerably less satisfied and fault Epic for allowing host organizations to deliver an experience below Epic’s usual standard.
New
Blockit:
Emerging Technology Spotlight 2020
Emerging Technology Spotlight 2020
The healthcare market is saturated with start-ups and emerging technology, making it difficult for provider organizations to separate fact from fiction. Drawing on direct interviews with early adopters, KLAS Spotlight reports shine a light on emerging technology vendors, enabling provider organizations to cut through the hype. With input from the KLAS Advisory Board, provider partners, and healthcare innovation centers, KLAS identified common questions provider organizations have when considering emerging technology.
This Spotlight focuses on Blockit, a referral and patient scheduling management solution, and seeks to answer these questions, detailing customers’ anticipated outcomes and capturing early performance scores.
This Spotlight focuses on Blockit, a referral and patient scheduling management solution, and seeks to answer these questions, detailing customers’ anticipated outcomes and capturing early performance scores.
New
Augmedix:
Emerging Technology Spotlight 2020
Emerging Technology Spotlight 2020
The healthcare market is saturated with start-ups and emerging technology, making it difficult for provider organizations to separate fact from fiction. Drawing on direct interviews with early adopters, KLAS Spotlight reports shine a light on emerging technology vendors, enabling provider organizations to cut through the hype. With input from the KLAS Advisory Board, provider partners, and healthcare innovation centers, KLAS identified common questions provider organizations have when considering emerging technology.
This Spotlight focuses on Augmedix, a physician documentation service, used to document patient encounters and other tasks, and seeks to answer these questions, detailing customers’ anticipated outcomes and capturing early performance scores.
This Spotlight focuses on Augmedix, a physician documentation service, used to document patient encounters and other tasks, and seeks to answer these questions, detailing customers’ anticipated outcomes and capturing early performance scores.
New
Opioid Management:
Insights from CHIME's "Healthcare's Most Wired"
Insights from CHIME's "Healthcare's Most Wired"
A Look at Strategies Employed by the Nation’s Most Advanced Ambulatory Healthcare Organizations
Each year, acute and ambulatory care organizations from around the world take part in CHIME’s “Healthcare’s Most Wired” program, whose goal is to improve healthcare by encouraging the optimal use of information technology. These organizations are surveyed regarding their current adoption levels and strategies across many HIT areas. Based on the responses of 137 advanced ambulatory organizations in the US, this report delves into how organizations are using technology to battle opioid use disorder (OUD).
New
Suki:
Emerging Technology Spotlight 2020
Emerging Technology Spotlight 2020
The healthcare market
is saturated with start-ups and emerging technology, making it difficult for
provider organizations to separate fact from fiction. Drawing on direct
interviews with early adopters, KLAS Spotlight reports shine a light on
emerging technology vendors, enabling provider organizations to cut through the
hype. With input from the KLAS Advisory Board, provider partners, and
healthcare innovation centers, KLAS identified common questions provider
organizations have when considering emerging technology.
This Spotlight focuses on Suki, a clinical digital assistant used to document patient encounters and other tasks, and seeks to answer these questions, detailing customers’ anticipated outcomes and capturing early performance scores.
This Spotlight focuses on Suki, a clinical digital assistant used to document patient encounters and other tasks, and seeks to answer these questions, detailing customers’ anticipated outcomes and capturing early performance scores.
New
Decision Insights 2020:
National Trends
National Trends
New
NowPow:
Emerging Technology Spotlight 2020
Emerging Technology Spotlight 2020
The healthcare market is saturated with start-ups and
emerging technology, making it difficult for provider organizations to separate
fact from fiction. Drawing on direct interviews with early adopters, KLAS
Spotlight reports shine a light on emerging technology vendors, enabling
provider organizations to cut through the hype. With input from the KLAS
Advisory Board, provider partners, and healthcare innovation centers, KLAS
identified common questions provider organizations have when considering
emerging technology.
This Spotlight focuses on NowPow, a solution provider for SDoH or Whole Person Care, and seeks to answer these questions, detailing customers’ anticipated outcomes and capturing early performance scores.
This Spotlight focuses on NowPow, a solution provider for SDoH or Whole Person Care, and seeks to answer these questions, detailing customers’ anticipated outcomes and capturing early performance scores.
New
Artificial Intelligence in Imaging 2020:
Shifting Mindshare
Shifting Mindshare
Many provider organizations are exploring the deployment and adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) in imaging, and market competition has begun to increase among vendors who offer this technology. Based on feedback from 81 organizations with advanced imaging strategies, this report explores what healthcare organizations have planned for AI in imaging and their perceptions of which vendors are best positioned to help (responses could apply to modalities or software). It also identifies best practices related to AI deployment and adoption as reported by some of the healthcare industry’s most successful AI users. In the near future, KLAS plans to publish in-depth case studies from customers of some of the most frequently mentioned vendors to explore what is currently being achieved with AI in imaging.
New
Patient Perspectives on Patient Engagement Technology 2020
In recent years, provider organizations have increased their investment in patient engagement technologies, but the outcomes they report are often provider-centric and don’t necessarily benefit patients directly. It is becoming increasingly important for the patient voice to be at the center of vendor development and provider deployment efforts. To help support this focus, KLAS surveyed over 300 patients, asking them which patient engagement technologies have been most impactful to them and how they expect these technologies to impact them in the future.
New
Emerging HCIT Companies 2020:
Top-of-Mind Healthcare Technologies
Top-of-Mind Healthcare Technologies
KLAS conducts thousands of annual interviews with provider organizations to better understand their experience with their healthcare IT vendors. However, not all vendors are measured by KLAS today—some emerging vendors have very small customer bases, and others work in market segments outside KLAS’ current focus. This report also includes some established companies newly disrupting the healthcare market (e.g., Amazon, Google, Salesforce). To gain insights on emerging companies in healthcare IT, KLAS asks interviewed organizations to share the most innovative or potentially disruptive HIT vendor they have seen or heard about recently. During the latter half of 2019, 341 healthcare professionals from 299 different provider organizations responded to this question.
This report shares the top-of-mind companies and market segments that surfaced from these interviews; in the future, KLAS will monitor those companies that continue to pique market interest and gain mindshare among healthcare organizations.
Note: The data in this report was collected in the latter half of 2019 (from July 2019–Dec 2019).
New
Healthcare Business Intelligence and Analytics 2020:
Decision Insights Report
Decision Insights Report
The healthcare business intelligence (BI) and analytics market has become crowded, with vendors touting a variety of different benefits. Many healthcare organizations are looking to consolidate solutions, but who can meet organizations’ analytics needs and also bring departments together, aggregate siloed data, and drive outcomes in a consolidated way? This report examines 45 BI purchase decisions made over the last 18 months to determine what is driving buying decisions. Is it the solutions’ power/flexibility or the vendors’ experience/relationships? Which vendors are gaining momentum, and which are being left behind?
New
Patient Driven Payment Model (PDPM):
Flash Insights Report 2020
Flash Insights Report 2020
The new Patient Driven Payment Model (PDPM) proposed by Medicare went into effect in October 2019. Now that the first billing cycle under the model has passed, KLAS reached out to skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) to get early insights into how smoothly the transition went, how helpful their technology (EMR/therapy) vendors have been, and how the change has impacted their bottom line. The feedback came from a total of 48 respondents—11 executives, 20 directors, and 17 managers, analysts, and other healthcare professionals.
New
Cerner Revenue Cycle Management, Report 4 of 4:
Cerner Customers Waiting on Tangible Results
Cerner Customers Waiting on Tangible Results
In August 2018, representatives from some of Cerner’s largest and most complex customers met with Cerner executives to participate in a transparent summit around revenue cycle success. The purpose of this summit was to provide insights that would enable Cerner to conduct a significant pivot to regain client confidence and deliver a world-class RCM solution. In KLAS’ previous follow-up reports, customers reported that Cerner has delivered a road map, become more transparent, and worked to improve client relationships. This report is the final in the series and focuses on the tangible improvements that have been realized since the August 2018 summit.
Patient Engagement Summit 2019:
White Paper
White Paper
On November 11–12, 2019, healthcare IT leaders (20 from healthcare organizations and 19 from vendor organizations) gathered in Park City, Utah, to help guide the healthcare industry toward a common patient engagement target. The goal of this summit was two-fold: (1) to share success stories and recommendations for overcoming barriers and (2) to define what a patient engagement platform should entail.
Best in KLAS 2020:
Software/Services
Software/Services
Best in KLAS is a recognition given to vendors for
outstanding efforts to help healthcare professionals deliver better patient
care. The Best in KLAS designation is reserved for the software and services
market segments that have the broadest operational and clinical impact on
healthcare organizations. Separate from the winners of Best in KLAS, Category
Leaders also earn top honors for helping healthcare professionals provide
better patient care. The Category Leader designation is reserved for use in
select market segments that don’t qualify for Best in KLAS.
Best in KLAS 2020:
Global (Non-US)
Global (Non-US)
The Global Best in KLAS awards are given to vendors to
recognize outstanding efforts to help healthcare professionals outside the US
deliver better patient care. Global Best in KLAS awards are currently given in
two software market segments that have broad operational and clinical impact on
healthcare organizations around the world: (1) acute care EMR and (2) PACS.
Healthcare IT Investor Update:
2020 Q1
2020 Q1
In the 2020 Q1 Investor Update, KLAS M&A Advisory
leader, Chris Chandler, discusses Revenue Integrity and Revenue Cycle Unicorns,
the Digital Health Investment Symposium and Emerging Tech Recap, and Strategic
M&A deals done over the last 7 years with Boyd Stewart, Lauren Barton, Doug
Tolley, and Emily Paxman. Watch the webinar to get the latest investment
insights from KLAS experts.
340B 2020:
Service Weighs Heavy in Purchasing Decisions (A Decision Insights Report)
Service Weighs Heavy in Purchasing Decisions (A Decision Insights Report)
The 340B program is considered a critical savings opportunity for covered entities and their contracted pharmacies, and over the past couple of years, KLAS has noted an increase in provider organization purchase decisions in the third-party administrator space. Some organizations are putting out RFPs because their current contracts are ending, but many others are seeking out solutions to fill the functionality and service gaps of their current 340B vendor. Newer market entrants, such as PSG and RxStrategies, represent additional options to consider alongside the already-established market players. While organizations continue to look for new technology and functionality in potential vendor partners, factors like service, support, and relationships have proven to be key to long-term customer success.
Payer/Provider Keystone 2019 White Paper:
Payer and Provider Teamwork—Making the Ideal a Reality
Payer and Provider Teamwork—Making the Ideal a Reality
Payers and provider organizations work together to deliver and pay for over 3 trillion dollars of care each year in the United States. While
this partnership in huge in size—greater than the GDP of all but 7 countries—it is an uneasy, often adversarial relationship. What could
happen if these two parties were better aligned, with better trust and communication? Is this type of partnership possible?
Working toward these answers, KLAS gathered together several dozen provider, payer, healthcare technology and other industry experts and asked them these difficult questions, searched for instances of great partnership and identified possible opportunities to catalyze greater trust and alignment.
Digital Fax 2019:
What Is Possible with Digital Fax?
What Is Possible with Digital Fax?
While healthcare industry buzz tends to focus on flashy
technologies and new approaches to care, many provider organizations are still
combating a highly analog problem: eliminating paper faxing. While exact estimates vary, most medical
communication still relies on faxing, even with nearly ubiquitous EHR adoption†.
This report provides a unique look at digital fax solutions, which aim to
support a fully digital documentation strategy. Vendors offering these
solutions tout their ability to reduce costs, address the security concerns of paper
faxing, and even solve interoperability challenges. How well do they deliver? KLAS
interviewed organizations identified by vendors as their most advanced users in
an attempt to understand what is possible with digital fax solutions.
† “The fax of life: Why American medicine still runs on fax machines,” Vox
“90% Healthcare Providers Still Rely on Fax Machines, Posing Privacy Risk,” Health IT Security
† “The fax of life: Why American medicine still runs on fax machines,” Vox
“90% Healthcare Providers Still Rely on Fax Machines, Posing Privacy Risk,” Health IT Security
Global Digital Pathology 2019:
What You Need to Know to Get Started
What You Need to Know to Get Started
Around the world—from Asia, to Europe, to Canada, to the United States—healthcare organizations have begun to use digital pathology technology for primary diagnostic work, not just research (for which digital pathology has been used for nearly a decade). Depending on your organization, moving to a digital pathology solution may not save you money, but it can result in benefits like improved quality and flexibility for remote reading, and it will lay the groundwork for telepathology capabilities that can help your organization deal with pathologist shortages predicted for the future.
KLAS interviewed a number of leading organizations using digital pathology solutions for primary diagnosis, focusing on reference sites from vendors in the US and Europe, to highlight what healthcare organizations need to know to get started with digital pathology.
KLAS interviewed a number of leading organizations using digital pathology solutions for primary diagnosis, focusing on reference sites from vendors in the US and Europe, to highlight what healthcare organizations need to know to get started with digital pathology.
Value-Based Care Managed Services 2019:
Which Vendor's Profile and Performance Match Your VBC Needs?
Which Vendor's Profile and Performance Match Your VBC Needs?
Despite reduced regulatory pressure, competitive and financial factors continue to drive organizations toward value-based care (VBC), yet making the transition is a complex and expensive undertaking, especially for smaller or midsize organizations, who may lack the resources and expertise of their larger peers. An array of services firms and software vendors offer managed services designed to help. These offerings vary widely, and provider organizations will want to consider several factors when choosing the firm that is right for them. This report examines eight services firms and software vendors who offer VBC managed services to examine the types of projects and organizations they work with and how well they perform.
Enterprise Imaging 2019:
Strategic Contributors to Progress
Strategic Contributors to Progress
Enterprise imaging strategies aim to align provider departments, priorities, and technologies to drive key outcomes. KLAS has watched some strategies evolve and grow while others struggle to take shape. The purpose of this report is to (1) provide an update on industry progress, (2) show how both healthcare provider organizations and vendors contribute to that progress, and (3) identify which enterprise imaging vendors act as true strategic partners that drive success.
What Is Enterprise Imaging?
KLAS defines enterprise imaging as the ability to store and/or view images across the enterprise from more than one service line or storage solution.
Value-Based Care Consulting 2019:
Finding the Best Fit in a High-Performing Market
Finding the Best Fit in a High-Performing Market
Transitioning from fee-for-service to value-based care (VBC) is a top-of-mind concern for healthcare organizations. However, previous KLAS research has revealed that VBC transformation is also the area in which healthcare executives are least familiar with which firms are well positioned to help. This report examines nine firms that provide value-based care consulting services to explore the types of work these firms do (and for who), how consistently the firms perform across clients, the outcomes they deliver, and the factors that drive these outcomes.
Worksite Health Services 2019:
Measuring Clinic Adoption and Outcomes
Measuring Clinic Adoption and Outcomes
As healthcare costs continue to climb, employers are attempting to mitigate the impact by taking measures to help manage and improve the health of their employees. A very tangible step—particularly common among self-insured employers—is to engage a worksite health services firm to provide employees (and sometimes their dependents) with primary care and related services. Employers generally agree that employees view workplace clinics as a nice benefit, but the real question is whether the clinics actually improve employee health and reduce costs. This KLAS report is intended to increase transparency in the market by shining a light on employers’ real-world experiences with various worksite health services firms.
Ophthalmology 2019:
Which Vendors Best Meet Ophthalmology Needs?
Which Vendors Best Meet Ophthalmology Needs?
As the US population ages, the demand for ophthalmology treatments, therapies, and procedures is increasing, as is the number of healthcare providers who deliver these services. The field of vendors who offer EMR software for ophthalmology practices is also changing amid strategic acquisitions and mergers. This consolidation has left large numbers of clinics wondering whether their EMR will be supported long term and which vendors can best meet their needs. This report—KLAS’ first on EMR performance in the ophthalmology market—attempts to increase transparency by examining vendor performance in areas such as ease of use, reporting, and ophthalmology-specific development.
Population Health Care Management 2019:
Adoption Early But Gaining Traction
Adoption Early But Gaining Traction
Care management is where the rubber meets the road in population health management (PHM). Many provider organizations are able to access their data, analyze it, and ascertain patient risk, but now they are pushing for better, more automated ways to manage the care of at-risk patients. Many vendors are struggling to keep pace with delivering care management (CM) capabilities due to siloed data and high variation in customer needs. Notably, several high-profile PHM vendors are not included in this research because their CM functionality is too limited, too early, and/or lacks sufficient adoption.
This report, KLAS’ first look at the use of PHM software specifically for care management, shares what functionality vendors provide and how well those tools support care managers’ work—by first pulling in data to create a longitudinal record and then providing actionable insights and helping to identify and close care gaps.
This report, KLAS’ first look at the use of PHM software specifically for care management, shares what functionality vendors provide and how well those tools support care managers’ work—by first pulling in data to create a longitudinal record and then providing actionable insights and helping to identify and close care gaps.
Revenue Integrity / Underpayment 2019:
High Value Reported in High-Performing Market
High Value Reported in High-Performing Market
Healthcare organizations lose money when underpayments, transfer DRGs, and denials cause insurance payments and other types of income to be left on the table. Revenue integrity firms aim to solve this problem by helping organizations retroactively recoup revenue and proactively prevent future loss. In a big win for healthcare organizations, these firms are very high performing overall—of the services segments KLAS measures, revenue integrity is rated third overall and first for value and customer loyalty. Rather than splitting hairs on the performance of a high-performing pool of options, this report focuses on firms’ individual services offerings to help organizations find the best fit (or fits, as many organizations leverage multiple firms).
Revenue Cycle Unicorns 2019:
Unique Solutions Closing Gaps
Unique Solutions Closing Gaps
The healthcare revenue cycle is a notoriously treacherous, high-stakes journey, and provider organizations who don’t have the right tools in hand are likely to get held up fighting high costs and lost revenue. While KLAS has done extensive research in the past on revenue cycle solutions, this report focuses on the solutions that take a more unique approach to tackling revenue cycle issues—in other words, revenue cycle “unicorns.” These solutions often don’t fit into KLAS’ traditional revenue cycle market segment, lack direct competitors, or are potentially disruptive to existing ways of doing business. As a result of their unique nature, the solutions rated in this report are not compared side by side but rather examined individually through the lens of customer experience.
ERP Implementation 2019:
Which Consulting Partner Is the Right Fit for Your ERP Implementation?
Which Consulting Partner Is the Right Fit for Your ERP Implementation?
Static for many years, the ERP software market has seen a resurgence of energy, thanks in part to the introduction of several cloud solutions. With this uptick in purchasing has come increased need for partners who can help organizations implement the technology and oversee the significant change management and training required—in fact, a number of interviewed organizations note that success might depend more on the implementation partner than on the actual software implemented. While some organizations choose their software vendor to manage the project, others engage a third-party firm. Which type of partner is right for your organization?
Global PACS 2019:
Vendor Performance in Shifting Market
Vendor Performance in Shifting Market
The non-US PACS market is shifting—as cloud technology and
lighter infrastructure replace aging C/S models, several traditional market
mainstays are no longer viewed as cutting-edge technology. The need for
traditional workstations has not disappeared, but healthcare organizations are
looking for vendors that are developing imaging platforms that will meet
customer needs today and in the future. Based on perspectives from 325
individuals at 272 organizations in 48 countries and territories outside the US,
this report examines global as well as regional PACS performance.
Remote Patient Monitoring 2019:
The New Age of RPM
The New Age of RPM
Almost all users of remote patient monitoring (RPM) solutions get measurable outcomes (see KLAS’ 2018 RPM report), but because of factors like value-based care, new reimbursement options, and consumer-focused technology, the market and customer expectations are evolving.
This report, KLAS’ first look at RPM vendor performance, investigates how vendors fare at transitioning away from the old paradigm of rigid, hardware-based products to the new age of RPM—in which solutions empower patients and facilitate expansion of RPM use cases. Which vendors offer the technology, support, and flexibility that provider organizations need to grow their RPM programs?
This report, KLAS’ first look at RPM vendor performance, investigates how vendors fare at transitioning away from the old paradigm of rigid, hardware-based products to the new age of RPM—in which solutions empower patients and facilitate expansion of RPM use cases. Which vendors offer the technology, support, and flexibility that provider organizations need to grow their RPM programs?
Patient Engagement Ecosystem 2019:
Is the Industry Aligned?
Is the Industry Aligned?
Patient engagement is one of the most complex and overwhelming areas of healthcare IT that KLAS measures, involving dozens of relevant HIT capabilities and a slew of vendors claiming to offer them. To cut through the noise in this chaotic market, KLAS has undertaken several research initiatives, including this Patient Engagement Ecosystem, which explores how closely vendors’ claimed capabilities align with provider organizations’ patient engagement priorities. Due to the profusion of vendors in the market and the large number of technology capabilities to consider, the ecosystem encompasses this report as well as additional content on the KLAS website. For reader ease, links to this online content are provided where applicable.
Healthcare AI 2019:
Actualizing the Potential of Artificial Intelligence - CHIME Edition
Actualizing the Potential of Artificial Intelligence - CHIME Edition
Artificial intelligence (AI) has been a buzzword in healthcare for several years, but how real is it? Are healthcare organizations adopting AI? How are they using it, and what outcomes are they seeing? Based on interviews with 57 trailblazing healthcare organizations, this AI primer provides insights on organizations’ needed AI capabilities, common challenges, and best-practice advice. Across the technology and healthcare industries, definitions of AI vary widely; KLAS’ working definition of AI was created for use in research regarding customer satisfaction with AI technology and was formed based on advice from many leading health systems and solution partners (called “vendors” throughout).
For insights on vendor performance and customer outcomes, see the full KLAS report: “Healthcare AI 2019: Actualizing the Potential of AI.”
Emerging Technology Spotlight 2019:
PatientPing
PatientPing
Brand new in 2019, KLAS’s Emerging Technology Spotlight reports help provider organizations separate reality from hype in emerging healthcare markets, companies, and technologies. Each Spotlight report focuses on a single technology or company, with the ultimate goal of uncovering the early customer experience and identifying how innovative companies are solving healthcare problems. The reports are brief in nature (2–3 pages) and include a product/company overview, an initial performance assessment, a summary of the validated customer experience (via customer interviews), an interview with a company executive, and KLAS’s Points to Ponder (questions organizations should keep in mind when evaluating vendors).
Global VNA Solutions 2019:
Insights from Leading Organizations
Insights from Leading Organizations
Outside the US, the vendor-neutral archive (VNA) market is still emerging, and even some of the most successful organizations feel their VNA vendors could do more to deliver the strategic guidance and support they need. For this study, KLAS reached out to reference sites from measured vendors to learn what is possible with VNAs today and which vendors have proven to deliver the experience and strong guidance customers need.
Healthcare AI 2019:
Actualizing the Potential of Artificial Intelligence
Actualizing the Potential of Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) has been a buzzword in healthcare for several years, but how real is it? Are healthcare organizations adopting AI? How are they using it and what outcomes are they seeing? Based on interviews with 57 trailblazing healthcare organizations, this report—KLAS’ first on this emerging area (specifically machine learning and NLP)—consists of two types of findings: (1) an AI primer with insights on needed AI capabilities, common challenges, and best-practice advice; and (2) early findings about what outcomes healthcare organizations are achieving with AI technology and how well their vendors drive value. Overall, vendor performance in the AI space is high (compared to other software market segments measured by KLAS).
Across the technology and healthcare industries, definitions of AI vary widely; KLAS’ working definition of AI was created for use in research regarding customer satisfaction with AI technology and was formed based on advice from many leading health systems and vendors.
Across the technology and healthcare industries, definitions of AI vary widely; KLAS’ working definition of AI was created for use in research regarding customer satisfaction with AI technology and was formed based on advice from many leading health systems and vendors.
Achieving EHR Satisfaction in Any Specialty 2019:
Impact Report
Impact Report
Insights shared by over 30,000 physicians reveal that EHR satisfaction is highly variable across specialties. For example, pediatrics physicians have an average Net EHR Experience Score (a measurement of overall satisfaction similar to a net promoter score) of 24.0, but other specialties report much lower satisfaction (e.g., cardiology with a score of 1.6).
Healthcare IT Investor Update:
2019 Q4
2019 Q4
In the 2019 Q4 Investor Update, KLAS investment
expert Chris Chandler discuss market share data with Boyd Stewart, Aaron Gleave
and Joe Vandegraaff on Revenue Cycle Management, several big-name IPOs, and
movement in the ambulatory market. Watch the webinar to get the latest
investment insights from KLAS experts.
Interoperability Platforms 2019:
Shifting Away from Traditional HIE
Shifting Away from Traditional HIE
Interest in HIE technology exploded nearly a decade ago, and the HIE solution market has been in flux ever since. Today, the field of vendors is narrow, and many provider organizations want technology that is more than a conduit for sharing patient records—they are looking for interoperability platforms that enable the use of aggregated data for innovative use cases. To understand where vendors are in the transition from traditional HIE to interoperability platforms, KLAS interviewed organizations identified by their vendor as their most advanced users. In-depth interviews with these organizations—as well as general performance feedback from vendors’ broader customer bases—reveal wide variation in use cases and the customer experience.
Strategic M&A 2019:
A Recipe for Success with Mergers and Acquisitions
A Recipe for Success with Mergers and Acquisitions
Mergers and acquisitions are a common occurrence in the healthcare IT industry, and recent years have seen several big announcements in the EHR space (e.g., Cerner acquiring Siemens, Allscripts acquiring McKesson). This report provides an update on recent M&A activity and—by examining customer satisfaction before, during, and one year after a merger or acquisition—answers these questions posed by investors, vendors, and healthcare organizations:
Innovation Center Consortium 2019 White Paper:
Accelerating Next-Generation Healthcare IT Development
Accelerating Next-Generation Healthcare IT Development
In September 2019, the new KLAS Innovation Center Consortium kicked off with a day-long workshop attended by a select group of representatives from some of healthcare’s most forward-thinking provider innovation centers. The goal of the workshop was to share development priorities and best practices for seeing healthcare IT innovation projects through to success. The insights shared in this paper come from the day’s small group discussions.
DHIS 2019 White Paper:
Paving the Way for Radical Change in Healthcare
Paving the Way for Radical Change in Healthcare
In September 2019, KLAS hosted its third annual investment symposium. In attendance were healthcare thought leaders from private equity and venture-capital firms, digital health companies, healthcare provider organizations, and health-system incubators. Small group discussions focused on identifying practical ways that the efforts of investors, vendors, and providers can be aligned to overcome some of healthcare’s biggest challenges. The intent of this paper is to share insights from those discussions and to highlight ways stakeholders throughout the industry can support radical change.
Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) 2019:
Standout Vendors in an Early Market
Standout Vendors in an Early Market
As healthcare IT has become increasingly interconnected, securing medical devices—many of which were not purpose built for usage on a computer network—has become a top priority for healthcare security professionals. In response, a plethora of Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) software has emerged, creating high purchase energy, especially among larger organizations. To better understand this market energy, KLAS spoke with 47 unique organizations that have recently selected an IoMT vendor to determine which vendors they considered and ultimately selected, what factors contributed to their decision, and how they engaged with third-party services firms. Future KLAS research will delve further into how these IoMT vendors actually perform.
Consulting for Cerner 2019:
Consultant Expertise Is the Measure of Success
Consultant Expertise Is the Measure of Success
Organizations using Cerner’s EMR and revenue cycle software are increasingly looking for help from consulting firms to implement and optimize this software. These organizations almost universally consider Cerner’s in-house services, but those who engage Cerner for implementation or IT advisory services tend to be dissatisfied in much higher numbers than those who opt to use a third party. This report aims to help organizations find the best fit by diving into Cerner’s and other firms’ depth and breadth of experience, strategic expertise, and dedication to client success.
Credentialing 2019:
Addressing Credentialing Pain Points
Addressing Credentialing Pain Points
Having a comprehensive credentialing process is vital for healthcare organizations to avoid malpractice, protect against financial risks, and ensure patient safety. As a result of many recent M&As, organizations have larger pools of providers to credential and are increasingly looking for IT tools with robust functionality and automation to make the process more efficient. This report, a follow-up to KLAS’ first credentialing report from 2018, dives into how well solutions resolve some of credentialing’s biggest pain points—time-consuming onboarding, manual and paper processes, and the need for a single, enterprise source of truth.
Emerging Technology Spotlight:
Olive AI
Olive AI
Brand new in 2019, KLAS’s Emerging Technology Spotlight
reports help provider organizations separate reality from hype in emerging
healthcare markets, companies, and technologies. Each Spotlight report focuses
on a single technology or company, with the ultimate goal of uncovering the
early customer experience and identifying how innovative companies are solving
healthcare problems. The reports are brief in nature (2–3 pages) and include a
product/company overview, an initial performance assessment, a summary of the
validated customer experience (via customer interviews), an interview with a
company executive, and KLAS’s Points to Ponder (questions organizations should
keep in mind when evaluating vendors).
Pulse Check 2019 - Epic Small Practices EMR:
New Visibility into an Unexplored Market
New Visibility into an Unexplored Market
Epic’s footprint among small practices (1–10 physicians) is extensive and growing as more of these clinics join local ACOs, affiliate with other organizations using Epic, or simply want the benefits that come with better clinical integration. Yet relatively little insight exists into how the solution performs for small practices or what successes and challenges these organizations encounter with Epic. This report is KLAS’ first attempt to shine a light on the experience of Epic users in small ambulatory settings.
Smart Pumps 2019 Decision Insights:
Energy at the Enterprise Level
Energy at the Enterprise Level
Most smart pumps today garner fairly high overall satisfaction, yet factors such as EMR interoperability, total cost of ownership, and platform consolidation lead to high variability in how often different vendors are considered. Examining 36 smart pump purchase decisions made in the last 18 months, this report considers each vendor’s market energy and the reasons smart pumps are being considered, selected, and replaced.
Global (Non-US) EMR Implementations 2019:
Who Can Best Help Me Navigate My EMR Implementation?
Who Can Best Help Me Navigate My EMR Implementation?
Given the intense nature of an EMR implementation, it is natural that most projects will experience at least a few unexpected hurdles. In fact, about 30% of healthcare organizations outside the US report going over budget and 40% report vendor-missed timelines. However, feedback from recent implementations† shows that some vendors are much more likely to help their clients stay on budget, on time, and within scope. Which vendors make the list?
† Data for this report was collected from organizations outside the US who contracted for an EMR between January 2016 and August 2018 and who are either currently implementing their solution or have already done so. Feedback was also collected from some organizations who have an ongoing implementation that started prior to January 2016.
Cerner Revenue Cycle Management, Report 3 of 4:
Cerner Customers Cautiously Optimistic
Cerner Customers Cautiously Optimistic
In August 2018, representatives from some of Cerner’s largest and most complex customers met with Cerner executives to participate in a transparent summit around revenue cycle success. The purpose of this summit was to provide insights that would enable Cerner to conduct a significant pivot to regain client confidence and deliver a world-class RCM solution. After the summit, Cerner made specific commitments to clients on when issues would be addressed. This report is a follow-up on Cerner’s progress toward those commitments.
Computer-Assisted Coding (CAC) 2019:
Is CAC Worth the Investment?
Is CAC Worth the Investment?
When first released, computer-assisted coding (CAC) solutions were slow to deliver hoped-for outcomes. If your organization is one of the many wondering whether they are now worth the investment, you should know this: 94% of adopters interviewed by KLAS would purchase their CAC solution again. To help organizations understand what outcomes are possible with a CAC solution and how well the various vendors help their customers achieve these outcomes, KLAS gathered two types of customer feedback: (1) general performance feedback from across each vendor’s customer base, and (2) in-depth, outcomes-related feedback from vendors’ deepest adopters.
Emerging HCIT Companies 2019 Midyear Update:
Top-of-Mind Healthcare Technologies
Top-of-Mind Healthcare Technologies
Annually, KLAS conducts thousands of interviews with provider organizations to better understand their experience with their healthcare IT vendors. However, not all vendors are measured by KLAS today—some emerging vendors have very small customer bases, and others work in market segments outside KLAS’ current focus. To gain insights on these emerging companies, KLAS asks interviewed organizations to share the most innovative or potentially disruptive HIT vendor they have seen or heard about recently. During the first half of 2019, 68 healthcare professionals from 66 different provider organizations responded to this question.
This report shares the top-of-mind companies and market segments that surfaced from these interviews; in the future, KLAS will monitor those companies that continue to pique market interest and gain mindshare among healthcare organizations.
This report shares the top-of-mind companies and market segments that surfaced from these interviews; in the future, KLAS will monitor those companies that continue to pique market interest and gain mindshare among healthcare organizations.
Drug Diversion Monitoring 2019:
An Early Look at Emerging vs. Established Technology
An Early Look at Emerging vs. Established Technology
Given the increased nationwide focus on the opioid epidemic, there has been a surge in demand for advanced drug diversion monitoring tools. Both established and emerging vendors have responded by developing new solutions that promise next-generation technology to comprehensively and proactively monitor dispensing behaviors. This report offers an early look at how far along these vendors are and what the customer experience is like so far. Despite increased interest, few customers feel they are having a true next-generation experience with their solution today.
Payer Care Management 2019:
Decision Insights Report
Decision Insights Report
While utilization management and care management solutions have been around for decades, today health plans are looking for modern technology solutions to help them manage multiple business lines and adapt to changing requirements for value-based care. While innovation overall in payer HIT is not abundant, KLAS has seen an increase in decision energy mostly from relatively or completely new vendors receiving stronger consideration than existing or established vendors.
KLAS defines payer care management solutions as systems comprising functionality in areas like utilization management, case management, disease management, and care coordination. 40 unique payer organizations shared insights with KLAS about their purchasing decision process, including which vendors they considered, selected, and decided to replace. As validated in this research, future-state goals (noted below) are becoming increasingly important in these decisions.
Medication Inventory Management 2019:
How Close Is Your Vendor to Enabling True Enterprise MIM?
How Close Is Your Vendor to Enabling True Enterprise MIM?
Enterprise medication inventory management (MIM) can create substantial efficiency gains and financial savings, but the reality today is that no pharmacy or EMR vendor delivers the full visibility hospitals need. Even those vendors furthest down the path lag behind the inventory capabilities found in other industries, such as retail and manufacturing. To highlight which vendors have made progress and where gaps still remain, this report compares the reality of each vendor’s MIM offering with the full spectrum of capabilities required for true enterprise MIM. Additional findings are also highlighted in two areas that impact MIM—automated dispensing cabinets and medication kit/tray management solutions.
Acute Care EMR Decision Insights 2019:
Buyers Unwilling to Settle
Buyers Unwilling to Settle
A seamless patient record across the healthcare organization has become a universal expectation. Having integrated acute care and ambulatory records is the most-often-cited reason for a hospital of any size to look at a new EMR system. EMR systems without proven integration are rarely considered and even more rarely selected. Buyers know what is possible from an EMR, and most are now unwilling to settle for less.
Cerner, Epic, and MEDITECH are most likely to be considered for large hospitals (500+ beds) and midsize hospitals (201–500 beds). The competition for hospitals with fewer than 200 beds is much more crowded, with MEDITECH Expanse, athenahealth, Allscripts (both Sunrise™ and Paragon), CPSI, eClinicalWorks, and MEDHOST battling alongside Cerner CommunityWorks and Epic Community Connect.
DHIS International 2019 White Paper
On 3–4 June 2019, KLAS convened a symposium in Sitges, Spain (just outside Barcelona). This symposium brought together healthcare thought leaders from Europe and other non-US regions to wrestle with the challenges the global healthcare industry faces in adopting innovative technology to help solve healthcare-related problems. Discussion topics included policy barriers and areas of high-impact investment, such as patient engagement, AI, interoperability, telehealth, and enterprise imaging. Attendees included representatives from healthcare provider organisations—including public hospitals & trusts, regional authorities, and private healthcare groups—as well as from IT suppliers, private equity firms, industry consultants, and investment bankers. This white paper represents the collective insights shared by these attendees.
Healthcare IT Investor Update:
2019 Q3
2019 Q3
In the 2019 Q3
Investor Update, KLAS investment experts Chris Chandler and Ben Brown discuss
market share data for the healthcare business intelligence, along with the
impact of recent acquisitions in this pace, EHR satisfaction and the
athenahealth purchase, and KLAS Decision Insights data. Find out how these high
energy topics will impact the investing landscape moving forward.
Improving EHRs Globally:
An Arch Collaborative Impact Report 2019
An Arch Collaborative Impact Report 2019
Today, achieving EHR satisfaction is a global endeavor as digitization of patient records becomes more and more common throughout the world. This report aims to increase awareness of the similarities and differences in EHR challenges faced by US and non-US health systems. To date, 189 organizations across the globe have measured the feedback of their clinicians (totaling >90,000 responses) and have received benchmarking data comparing them to similar organizations. 13 of these organizations are outside the United States. Do non-US health systems have a different perception of their EHR compared to US organizations? And if there are differences, what can each group learn from the other?
In most ways, US and non-US health systems have similar experiences with their EHRs. For both groups, system reliability and internal integration are the two aspects of the EHR generating most satisfaction. The areas where more significant differences appear are efficiency (non-US health systems are more satisfied by 12 percentage points) and external integration (US health systems are more satisfied by 9 percentage points).
How Aligned Are Provider Organizations with the Health Industry Cybersecurity Practices (HICP) Guidelines?:
A KLAS-CHIME White Paper
A KLAS-CHIME White Paper
The 405(d) Task Group—convened by HHS following the Cybersecurity Act of 2015—recently released
“Health Industry Cybersecurity Practices: Managing Threats and Protecting Patients” (HICP), a
document containing recommendations for provider organizations on how they can reduce and
mitigate their cybersecurity risks.
Outsourced Revenue Cycle Services 2019:
Are Outsourced Revenue Cycle Services Worth the Investment?
Are Outsourced Revenue Cycle Services Worth the Investment?
Provider organizations investing in outsourced revenue cycle services to relieve cost and resource burdens need their firms to take true ownership of the complex revenue cycle and deliver accordingly. Unfortunately, some firms are falling short—most common for clients using full revenue cycle outsourcing (RCO). As a result, organizations are increasingly choosing and generally report more success with extended business office services (EBOS), which are more focused in scope. KLAS spoke to 140 provider organizations using RCO or EBOS to determine which firms are delivering and which are falling behind.
HIT Advisory Services 2019:
Seasoned vs. Developing Firms
Seasoned vs. Developing Firms
Implementation and go-live work is on the decline as healthcare organizations shift their focus to more strategic projects. Many firms that traditionally provided tactical services have responded by expanding their offerings to include more HIT advisory work. Given the influx of options, organizations are asking KLAS, “Can the developing firms† meet my needs, or are seasoned firms a safer bet?” The answer is that there are many high-performing options in both groups, and organizations must consider several factors to find the best fit.
Radiation Therapy 2019:
Relationships a Key Driver of Value
Relationships a Key Driver of Value
The purchase of radiation therapy equipment is a large—and often long-term—investment, and while the vendors are few, the stakes are high. To be able to provide effective treatments and attract patients (who are more mobile and more involved in their care than ever), organizations need accurate, reliable technology backed by stellar vendor support. This report will help organizations determine which vendor will give them the best value by examining (1) customer loyalty and long-term plans; (2) relationships and support; and (3) ease of use and integration.
Emerging Acute Care EMRs 2019:
Status of New Offerings from athenahealth, eClinicalWorks, Epic, and MEDITECH
Status of New Offerings from athenahealth, eClinicalWorks, Epic, and MEDITECH
In recent years, athenahealth, eClinicalWorks, Epic, and MEDITECH have all released new acute care EMR platforms. Small and midsize organizations express high interest in these solutions, but adoption and development vary widely, and only athenahealth and MEDITECH currently have live customers. This report provides a snapshot of each solution’s current state and examines how well athenahealth and MEDITECH—the top-performing solutions in the 1–200 bed market—are meeting the needs of various departments and user groups.
Note: Information about more longstanding acute care EMR platforms not covered in this research can be found on the KLAS website.
Payer IT Consulting 2019:
Which Firms Can Adapt to Meet the Complex IT Needs of Payer Organizations?
Which Firms Can Adapt to Meet the Complex IT Needs of Payer Organizations?
Demand for payer IT consulting services continues to rise as changing market regulations have increased the need for improved efficiency, accurate software, and ways to navigate the complex market environment. This report, KLAS’ first in the market, offers transparency into what payer IT consulting firms offer and their performance, including expertise and adaptability to customer needs (i.e., being flexible in approach and staffing and agile in making changes). At a high level, healthcare-specific firms are delivering more guidance and flexibility than cross-industry firms, though there are exceptions to this trend.
Opioid Prescription Intelligence 2019:
Providers Realizing Improved Opioid-Prescribing Outcomes
Providers Realizing Improved Opioid-Prescribing Outcomes
Opioid prescription intelligence solutions combat the challenge of accessing data from prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs) by pulling this crucial information into the EMR workflow. Hospitals and practices are seeing great success with these solutions—organizations consistently report they can better identify opiate seekers, reduce dangerous prescription mismatches, improve prescribing habits, and advance their opioid-stewardship strategies. No matter the solution organizations choose or the details of their opioid-stewardship strategy, prescription intelligence solutions can benefit patients.
Practice Management (11+ Physicians) 2019:
Big Changes in a Highly Established Market
Big Changes in a Highly Established Market
Practice management (PM) solutions continue to demonstrate surprising variation in performance despite their longstanding usage in ambulatory practices. This variation is partly attributable to often-changing regulatory requirements, but some PM vendors still struggle to deliver basic functionality. Others are proving that commitment to customer success can reverse poor performance or raise the bar in the market.
Can My EHR Get Me There?:
An Arch Collaborative Impact Report 2019
An Arch Collaborative Impact Report 2019
The KLAS Arch Collaborative has collected the feedback of over 80,000 clinicians at 180+ organizations across 9 countries and found that which EHR vendor they use does not determine satisfaction on its own.
Successful Users’ Keys to EHR Satisfaction:
An Arch Collaborative Impact Report 2019
An Arch Collaborative Impact Report 2019
In October 2018, the Arch Collaborative added an open-ended question to the end of our clinician-experience survey for those who report high satisfaction and efficiency: What do you believe that you do differently from some of your peers that enables you to be highly successful with the EHR? This question only appears for those clinicians who agree or strongly agree that the EHR enables them to deliver high-quality care and that the EHR makes them as efficient as possible. Arch Collaborative data has indicated that the keys to EHR success lie with EHR education, EHR personalization, and the organization’s culture. But what do the clinicians themselves cite? The following report highlights what the first 1,261 clinicians to answer the question above do differently to be successful, and what other clinicians who may not be using the EHR quite as successfully can learn from their peers.
Cerner Revenue Cycle Management, Report 2 of 4:
Has Cerner Changed Course?
Has Cerner Changed Course?
In August 2018, representatives from some of Cerner’s largest and most complex customers met with Cerner executives to participate in a transparent summit around revenue cycle success. The purpose of this summit was to provide Cerner with enough insight to enable Cerner to conduct a significant pivot to regain client confidence in Cerner and deliver a world-class RCM solution. After the summit, Cerner made specific commitments to clients on when issues would be addressed.
Healthcare IT Investor Update:
2019 Q2
2019 Q2
In the 2019 Q2 Investor Update, KLAS investment experts Chris Chandler and Ben Brown discuss market share data for the acute care EMR space, future hospital deals, and organizations' decision to outsource revenue cycle. Find out how these high energy topics will impact the investing landscape moving forward.
Global (Non-US) EMR Market Share 2019:
Large Public Tenders Shape 2018 EMR Landscape
Large Public Tenders Shape 2018 EMR Landscape
In 2018, over 180 healthcare organizations outside the United States made EMR purchase decisions—impacting 377 hospitals (303 new wins, 74 migrations). Though public tenders represent just 5% of the contracts signed, they account for over a quarter of the hospitals impacted. Examining these and other EMR decisions, this report aims to determine how EMR vendors fared in 2018 so that organizations looking to buy know what their peers are selecting.
US Hospital EMR Market Share 2019:
Significant Movement in Every Market Sector
Significant Movement in Every Market Sector
In terms of EMR purchasing, 2018 was the busiest of the past three years. This energy impacted every market sector, with the US government finalizing contracts, three large health systems changing EMRs, and the small-hospital market continuing to see churn. While the majority of all organizations that made go-forward decisions in 2018—regardless of size or type—chose Cerner or Epic, this does not tell the whole story.
Emerging Technology Spotlight:
SailPoint
SailPoint
Brand new in 2019, KLAS’s Emerging Technology Spotlight
reports help provider organizations separate reality from hype in emerging
healthcare markets, companies, and technologies. Each Spotlight report focuses
on a single technology or company, with the ultimate goal of uncovering the
early customer experience and identifying how innovative companies are solving
healthcare problems. The reports are brief in nature (2–3 pages) and include a
product/company overview, an initial performance assessment, a summary of the
validated customer experience (via customer interviews), an interview with a
company executive, and KLAS’s Points to Ponder (questions organizations should
keep in mind when evaluating vendors).
RTLS 2019:
Exploring Attainable Outcomes with Deep Adopters
Exploring Attainable Outcomes with Deep Adopters
KLAS’ 2016 RTLS report revealed that many provider organizations want to do more with RTLS. This year, vendors’ deepest adopters share how they are expanding their use of RTLS solutions. What significant outcomes are they seeing because of these efforts? How can other organizations do the same? Additionally, insights from both deep adopters and vendors’ broader customer bases indicate that while most RTLS vendors successfully help organizations drive outcomes, there are a couple of vendors with which success is much less likely.
ERP 2019:
Performance in the Cloud
Performance in the Cloud
In the traditionally stagnant market of ERP (HR, finance, and/or supply chain), aging on-premises solutions are giving way to several cloud options now on the table. Given the significant lift required to move to a new ERP system, many organizations contemplating the cloud are taking the opportunity to consider all vendors, not just their incumbent. To help in this search, KLAS interviewed provider organizations who are currently live with a cloud ERP solution to find out how the solutions perform overall, what kind of support and relationships each vendor offers during implementation and beyond, and organizations’ plans for the future.
Precision Medicine Implementer's Guide 2019
In March of 2019, 56 leaders from provider organizations with advanced, established precision medicine programs and 20 vendor leaders met in Chicago to learn from each other and discuss how other healthcare organizations could begin to set up and create their own precision medicine programs.
The goal of the summit was to advance healthcare and improve outcomes by encouraging the increased adoption of precision medicine technologies and disseminating the knowledge and learnings held and experienced by the organizations in attendance.
Patient Privacy Monitoring 2019:
Who Stands Out in a Highly Competitive Market?
Who Stands Out in a Highly Competitive Market?
The patient privacy environment today includes heightened regulatory demands, constrained resources, and an increasing number of PHI breaches, which are often tied to inappropriate insider access. Organizations can no longer protect patient privacy and meet regulatory demands simply by combing audit logs. They need patient privacy monitoring vendors who deliver partner-level service and strong solutions that limit false positives. KLAS interviewed 106 provider organizations to find out which vendors excel in these areas and which decision factors are key in purchasing decisions today.
Clearing the Way to Value-Based Care Success:
PHM Cornerstone Summit White Paper 2019
PHM Cornerstone Summit White Paper 2019
When CMS rolled out the Medicare Shared Savings Program in 2011, it helped initiate a wave of optimism that value-based reimbursement (VBR) programs would go a long way toward resolving the persistent problem of rising healthcare costs. Eight years later, some say that VBR has not lived up to its promises, and enthusiasm seems to be shrinking as many provider organizations hesitate to take on meaningful risk. Those that press forward often find that expected financial outcomes are out of reach. What happened to dampen enthusiasm? Why is success so difficult to achieve?
On November 14, 2018, leading executives from provider, payer, and vendor organizations convened in Salt Lake City, UT, to help answer these questions. Together, they identified strategic and operational barriers that have dampened VBR headway as well as potential solutions to clear the way. They also discussed ways to measure VBR progress in the future at both national and organizational levels. This document is being publicly shared to help all those that may benefit from the combined experience and expertise of summit attendees. (See page 15 for a list of attendees.)
On November 14, 2018, leading executives from provider, payer, and vendor organizations convened in Salt Lake City, UT, to help answer these questions. Together, they identified strategic and operational barriers that have dampened VBR headway as well as potential solutions to clear the way. They also discussed ways to measure VBR progress in the future at both national and organizational levels. This document is being publicly shared to help all those that may benefit from the combined experience and expertise of summit attendees. (See page 15 for a list of attendees.)
The Nurse EHR Experience:
An Arch Collaborative Impact Report 2019
An Arch Collaborative Impact Report 2019
Since nurses work widely with the EHR, it is crucial to measure their experience with it so that opportunities for improvement can be found. And since, on average, nurses report significantly higher EHR satisfaction than physicians, it is also important to understand their successes; doing so provides vital information about how to improve EHR satisfaction for all clinicians.
Decision Insights 2019:
National Trends
National Trends
IV Compounding 2019:
New Options Garner Consideration, But Traditional Solutions Still Outperform
New Options Garner Consideration, But Traditional Solutions Still Outperform
While patient safety and regulatory compliance are the main purchasing drivers for IV workflow management solutions and IV robots, many organizations are also looking to consolidate their pharmacy systems. To this end, organizations are wondering whether the workflow management solutions from EMR vendor Epic and broader pharmacy vendors BD and Omnicell are performing on par with those of the strong traditional players Baxter and Grifols. IV robots continue to fall short of customers’ expectations, though vendor acquisitions and mergers have shifted the performance landscape. Against this market backdrop, this report examines vendor differentiation in the key areas of market energy, patient safety, product throughput, and functionality.
Medical Oncology 2019:
Customer Pain Points and Critical Success Areas
Customer Pain Points and Critical Success Areas
The bulk of cancer care in the US is delivered by community cancer centers. They come in all sizes, and many have large-organization and academic affiliations, so their IT needs are getting more complex. These organizations need IT systems that can help them overcome oncology-specific challenges related to workflows, benchmarking, clinical trials, and data integration with other core EMRs. This report—focused specifically on medical oncology—examines how committed vendors are to making their customers successful and looks at customers’ functionality successes and pain points in the critical areas mentioned above.
Infection Control 2019:
An Early Look at Innovative Technologies
An Early Look at Innovative Technologies
Emerging vendor solutions aim to address advanced priorities within infection control, including UV disinfection, electronic hand hygiene systems, robust alerting logic, and predictive analytics (among others). KLAS will provide a random, aggregated view of the perceptions and considerations of the infection control community by interviewing ~50 organizations regarding their investment priorities and considerations.
Quality Management 2019:
The Search for a One-Stop Shop
The Search for a One-Stop Shop
Expectations for quality management vendors have shifted—while provider organizations were previously satisfied with basic regulatory reporting tools, they are now looking for a single platform that provides more robust quality improvement functionality. However, development from several quality management vendors has remained fairly stagnant, and many organizations find they must fill the gaps with population health management tools, EMRs, and BI solutions. Against this backdrop, this report explores (1) the correlation between trust and customer loyalty, (2) customer satisfaction with current functionality, and (3) which vendors use strong guidance to ensure customer success.
Are EMRAM Stage 7 Physicians More Successful?:
A 2019 KLAS–HIMSS Analytics Collaboration
A 2019 KLAS–HIMSS Analytics Collaboration
The last 10 years have seen a dramatic rise in the adoption of health information technology—as well as a dramatic rise in physician frustration with this technology. What about the organizations that have reached the peak of EHR adoption: HIMSS EMRAM Stage 7? Are their physicians more or less frustrated? To answer this question, KLAS (in cooperation with HIMSS Analytics) has used the public reporting of Stage 6 & 7 hospitals in the US to see whether there is a correlation between HIMSS EMRAM stage and EHR user satisfaction.
Interoperability 2019:
Vendor Success in Making Outside Data Usable
Vendor Success in Making Outside Data Usable
KLAS’ December 2018 interoperability update validated the CommonWell-Carequality connection, which makes data sharing possible for almost any provider organization. The next hurdle is making shared data usable. Progress so far shows that most vendors can reconcile PAMI data, but there are big differences in how contextual data (notes and labs) is managed. Additionally, all organizations must go through a learning curve in becoming comfortable consuming outside data, so getting started early is vital.
Legacy Data Archiving 2019:
A First Look at a Changing Market
A First Look at a Changing Market
Mergers, acquisitions, and the
purchase of new IT solutions leave many healthcare organizations with legacy
systems on their hands. Methods for handling these systems have matured over
time, with many organizations today choosing to retire the systems and archive their
data. 85% of organizations who have gone this route report positive financial
impacts (and many others expect financial benefits in the future). However, the
data-archiving vendor market is expanding as new vendors enter the field and
current vendors broaden their expertise and offerings. How can organizations
find the vendor that best suits their needs? Focused on the current state of
the market—yet acknowledging its fluid nature—this report explores (1) the
breadth of each vendor’s KLAS-validated archiving experience; (2) customer
satisfaction with the data-migration process; and (3) customer satisfaction
with the accuracy and accessibility of the legacy data.
Patient Engagement 2019:
Current and Future Trends in Vendor Selection
Current and Future Trends in Vendor Selection
Providers’ demand for effective patient engagement (PE) solutions
continues to grow, as does the number of HIT vendors claiming to meet those
needs. But which vendors are meeting needs today, and which are likely to play meaningful
roles tomorrow? KLAS asked providers to name HIT vendors they are currently using
or considering for future use: 74 organizations mentioned 109 unique vendor
names. In an effort to make sense of all
the options, this report is the first to apply a patient engagement–specific
framework developed through the collaboration of leading provider and vendor
executives at the KLAS Keystone Summit in October 2018.
Home Health 2019:
Decision Insights Report
Decision Insights Report
For many home health agencies, a quality EHR is a critical factor for staying in business. Home health EHR vendors are expected to be a strategic partner, helping customers navigate the current regulations and upcoming regulatory changes in the home health market. Accuracy of documentation and a focus on outcomes over activity are primary themes in market segment discussions. This report answers the critical questions of home health executives: Are other customers of my vendor satisfied? Which vendors do other home health agencies see as the most competitive when they are making their selections? When other agencies decide to make a change, where do they go?
Small Practice Ambulatory EMR/PM (10 or Fewer Physicians) 2019:
Building Strong Foundations for Customer Success
Building Strong Foundations for Customer Success
As healthcare has moved beyond meaningful use, small practices have begun to expect more from their vendors and to look for EMRs that do morethan meet basic regulatory requirements. As a result, EMR/PM satisfaction among small practices (10 or fewer physicians) has varied greatly over thepast year—scores for a number of vendors have swung more than 10 percentage points (some positively, some negatively). To explore what the futureholds for this market, KLAS spoke to hundreds of small practice customers about their EMR/PM experiences and needs and also interviewed executivesand representatives from AdvancedMD, Allscripts, Aprima, athenahealth, Azalea Health, CareCloud, Cerner, CureMD, eMDs, Greenway Health, Kareo,NextGen, Quest Diagnostics, and Virence Health (GE Healthcare) to find out how these vendors plan to increase customer satisfaction going forward.
Emerging HCIT Companies 2019:
Innovative Approaches to Tackling Healthcare's Problems
Innovative Approaches to Tackling Healthcare's Problems
In the tens of thousands of interviews KLAS conducts with healthcare providers on an annual basis, new companies or solutions are sometimes revealed as taking new or innovative approaches to solving some of the problems faced in healthcare today. This report shares the top-of-mind companies that surfaced during our emerging technology research interviews with provider organizations across the country in 2018; KLAS will continue to monitor those companies that continue to pique provider interest.
Middle East EMR 2019:
An In-Depth Look at Regional Performance and Market Share
An In-Depth Look at Regional Performance and Market Share
In the Middle East, EMR purchasing energy is growing. The number of private healthcare groups in the region is expanding, and several public healthcare organizations are evaluating their go-forward EMR plans. And while overall digital maturity of hospitals is lower in the Middle East than in some other parts of the world, those organizations who have decided to implement an EMR have very high expectations for deep adoption and need vendor partners who can help them meet their goals. This report—KLAS’ first focused exclusively on the Middle East—explores which vendors have market energy and how well they meet customers’ needs.
Small Practice Ambulatory EMR/PM (10 or Fewer Physicians) 2018:
Decision Insights Report
Decision Insights Report
Small ambulatory practices have been increasingly ignored by some EMR/PM vendors, and their overall satisfaction has decreased steadily—over the past six and half years, the average overall score for vendors in the small practice ambulatory EMR market has dropped from 81.6 to 74.2 (out of 100).
Small practices today are looking for more than just a minimally viable EMR—they want to invest in an asset
that improves their bottom line, facilitates patient-centric care, and increases clinician job satisfaction. And
they want their EMR vendor to be a strategic partner that provides great support.
The introduction of meaningful use created a flood of EMR vendors, most of whom were unable to sustain viable long-term business models. Today, KLAS tracks less than 20 vendors in the small practice market segment. None meet all the needs of small practices today.
Population Health Management 2018, Part 2:
Which Vendors Contribute Most to Patient and Financial Outcomes?
Which Vendors Contribute Most to Patient and Financial Outcomes?
Healthcare executives entering into value-based reimbursement (VBR) arrangements do so in an attempt to yield positive financial and patient outcomes. While provider organizations themselves bear some of the responsibility for achieving these outcomes, population health management (PHM) tools also play a crucial role. Yet not all PHM vendors have proven able to consistently contribute to customers’ goals. As a companion to KLAS’ report on PHM vendors’ partnering and guidance, this report examines which vendors are more likely to make a positive impact on customers’ outcomes and how well they perform in three areas highly correlated to customer outcome success: easy-to-use products, clear expectations, and high-quality ongoing training.
Population Health Management 2018, Part 1:
Partnering and Guidance - The X Factors to PHM Success
Partnering and Guidance - The X Factors to PHM Success
When it comes to achieving success with population health management, good technology is not enough. Vendor partnering and guidance are the x factors provider organizations need to drive success with their value-based reimbursement (VBR) strategies. Some vendors have risen to the challenge, while others have faltered following acquisitions or efforts to scale. Whether organizations are looking to engage a vendor for a specific VBR strategy or for a more long-term approach, this report aims to help them uncover which vendors provide strong partnering and guidance to mitigate risk and help customers achieve positive financial and patient outcomes.
AMS & Help Desk 2018:
Which Firms Are Exceeding Expectations and How?
Which Firms Are Exceeding Expectations and How?
Both the number of relevant firms and the depth of services offered within application management services (AMS) and help desk services have expanded in recent years. Some long-term players in the market are falling behind (e.g., CareTech Solutions, Cerner, and NTT DATA), and a few newcomers have widened the field (e.g., Cumberland, emids, HCTec, Nordic, and ROI Healthcare Solutions). KLAS spoke to 130 provider organizations who shared their experience with their AMS and help desk firms.
Operational Command Centers 2018:
An Underutilized Approach to Improving Efficiency and Outcomes
An Underutilized Approach to Improving Efficiency and Outcomes
While the term “command center” may conjure up images of NASA’s mission control or a highly sophisticated military operation, command centers also have a place in healthcare. Though few US hospitals or health systems are currently live with a command center, healthcare organizations have recently begun to reimagine this centralized approach to operations. The early consensus? Command centers can drive significant outcomes—including improved efficiency, increased revenue, and enhanced patient safety and satisfaction. Given these reported benefits, your organization may be wondering:
• What is a command center, and what technology/departments are typically involved?
• What specific outcomes are being achieved?
• How do the vendors differ in their approach to command centers and in their contributions to customer success?
• What best practices would organizations with live command centers recommend to their peers?
To answer these questions, KLAS asked command center vendors to point us toward their most innovative and forward-thinking customers. We then randomly interviewed three or four customers for each (24 organizations in total) to gather insights into this underutilized operational approach.
Cerner Revenue Cycle Management, Report 1 of 4:
Commitments Made Versus Commitments Kept
Commitments Made Versus Commitments Kept
In August 2018, 37 representatives from 17 current Cerner RCM clients and 24 representatives from 12 third-party consulting firms gathered in Salt Lake City with Cerner executives to participate in a transparent summit around revenue cycle success. The purpose of this summit was best described by Bert Zimmerli, CFO of host organization Intermountain Healthcare, in his invitation to peers to participate: “To work together to help accelerate client success and satisfaction with Cerner’s revenue cycle management solutions” and to work with Cerner “to formulate a plan worthy of our confidence.”
Prior to the summit, many Cerner RCM customers had expressed varying degrees of dissatisfaction with the solution and with Cerner’s development. To find out whether customers’ perceptions of Cerner and the RCM solution have changed, KLAS has reached out to the provider organizations and firms who attended the summit, as well as a handful of other advanced Cerner RCM customers, to gather feedback on the proposed changes and the future of Cerner’s RCM solution.
Orthopedic EMR 2018:
Who Meets the Needs of Orthopedic Practices?
Who Meets the Needs of Orthopedic Practices?
Given the growing utilization of orthopedic treatments, it is more important than ever for orthopedic practices to have EMR technology that enables clinician, patient, and financial success. However, KLAS’ Arch Collaborative research—which has collected EMR usability surveys from over 65,000 clinicians—indicates that orthopedists are some of the most dissatisfied EMR users. These users understand that just because an EMR is highly usable in other settings doesn’t mean it is the right fit for orthopedics. Many vendors say they can provide the unique functionality, usability, and workflows orthopedists need, but which actually deliver on these promises? And how do the various general EMRs compare to orthopedic-specific solutions? To find out, KLAS interviewed 120 healthcare professionals—including orthopedists, directors, CMIOs, practice administrators, nurses, and others—at both hospitals and standalone orthopedic practices.
Telehealth Virtual Care Platforms 2018:
Which Telehealth Vendors Have The Scalability Customers Need?
Which Telehealth Vendors Have The Scalability Customers Need?
Healthcare organizations report high satisfaction with their telehealth virtual care platforms (VCPs), so one might think it makes no difference what platform is used. In reality, there are significant differences in how broad the various platforms are and in the quality of the vendors’ service. Additionally, there is a trend of poor integration, and enterprise scalability is anything but certain for VCPs from either best-of-breed or EMR vendors. Hold on—this industry is about to get interesting!
Interoperability 2018:
Real Progress with Patient-Record Sharing via CommonWell and Carequality
Real Progress with Patient-Record Sharing via CommonWell and Carequality
Clinical Surveillance 2018:
Alerts Are Leading to Better Outcomes
Alerts Are Leading to Better Outcomes
Clinical surveillance tools hold the promise of giving caregivers clinically actionable insights that decrease
mortality, reduce readmissions, and improve overall patient outcomes, and clinicians expect these alerts to be embedded directly within their workflow. However, KLAS found it difficult to validate some vendors’ claims of having extensive live customers—at the time of this research, only Cerner and Epic have seen significant adoption of their surveillance tools. What impacts do clinical surveillance tools have on patient care and how can vendors better meet customers’ clinical surveillance needs?
Cardiovascular Structured Reporting 2018:
Who Can Set Clinicians Up For Success?
Who Can Set Clinicians Up For Success?
Adopting structured reporting is top of mind in the cardiology space, but moving the needle has proven difficult. Even when organizations have expanded their deployment of structured reporting, clinician adoption has not always followed; a common reason is that end-user clinicians are dissatisfied with their system. This report highlights what areas are critical to an excellent clinician experience and how well vendors deliver in these areas. KLAS also spoke to 41 deep adopters of structured reporting across a variety of vendors to uncover their keys to success.
Healthcare Management Consulting 2018:
Who Can Help with Healthcare’s Biggest Challenges?—An Executive Perspective
Who Can Help with Healthcare’s Biggest Challenges?—An Executive Perspective
The primary goals of this perception report will be to identify management consulting firms who can help meet healthcare executives needs not only now, but in the future as well. We will highlight the breadth of their capabilities and the depth of their healthcare expertise. Additionally, we will uncover the emerging consulting needs of providers and the attributes they value in a consulting firm.
Speech Recognition—Front-End EMR 2018:
Decision Insights Report
Decision Insights Report
Herbert Hoover, 31st President of the United States, said, “Competition is not only the basis of protection to the consumer but is the incentive to progress.” Competition forces vendors to focus on relationships and protects consumers from stagnant development and higher pricing. In the past, Nuance maintained multiple product offerings and had the largest customer base in the market by far. Today, healthcare organizations are typically choosing between two high-quality products in purchasing decisions: Nuance Dragon Medical One and MModal Fluency Direct. This increased competition has been good for customers and led to improvements by both vendors.
KLAS conducted 38 interviews in the past 18 months about purchasing decisions for front-end EMR speech recognition solutions. This report analyzes those decisions to determine why healthcare providers choose one product over another and what the perceived strengths and weaknesses of each offering are.
Improving the EHR Experience Through Personalization:
An Arch Collaborative Impact Report
An Arch Collaborative Impact Report
If there were a yellow
brick road that led to higher EHR satisfaction, that path would be EHR
personalization. Personalization leads to better EHR efficiency, better
physician agreement that the EHR enables quality care, more provider trust that
the EHR vendor has built a quality tool, and higher overall EHR satisfaction.
Precision Medicine Provider Validations 2018:
The Voice of the Provider - Report 2 of 2
The Voice of the Provider - Report 2 of 2
The transformative promise of precision medicine is often cited by healthcare industry leaders (both providers and vendors) as the driving reason why healthcare organizations need to begin their own clinical genomics programs. But with high barriers to entry, questions remain about whether precision medicine technology has reached a point where pioneering provider organizations have been able to realize a return on their investments.
In KLAS’ previous report on the subject, vendors weighed in on the functionalities they offer; in this report, providers share their perspective on the vendors they use. While performance data on individual vendors is not available in this report due to the early nature of this market, KLAS has aggregated the results as a measure of overall performance.
Patient Engagement Keystone Summit White Paper
On October 2, 2018, healthcare IT leaders (19 leaders from healthcare organizations and 29 leaders from vendor organizations) gathered outside Salt Lake City for one day to discuss patient engagement initiatives, outcomes, strategies, and best practices. The goal of this summit is to create a patient engagement framework that organizations can use as a compass to guide their goals and strategies and as a scorecard to assess progress along the way
Global EMR Performance 2018:
Spotlight on Regional Performance
Spotlight on Regional Performance
EMR adoption has grown significantly, rapidly changing the global EMR landscape. While previous KLAS reports gave mainly aggregate, global views of EMR performance, the state of the market is now such that KLAS can also more deeply examine vendor performance by region, giving provider organizations a more valuable, accurate picture of how vendors respond to regional needs. As part of this regional emphasis, this report examines how confident customers are in their vendor’s overall R&D efforts, in their dedication to healthcare in various regions, and in their ability to strategically partner with organizations to help drive deeper EMR adoption.
Ambulatory EHR (11+ Physicians) 2018:
Decision Insights Report
Decision Insights Report
Secure Communication 2018:
Decision Insights Report
Decision Insights Report
Secure communication is a rapidly evolving market, with high variability in terms of both customer needs and vendor offerings. Whether replacing an existing solution or making a net-new purchase, acute care organizations are largely moving toward broad communication platforms† that streamline communication organization-wide. In contrast, ambulatory organizations are focused primarily on HIPAA-compliant messaging. This report—which combines performance feedback from current customers with purchasing insights from 100 acute care, ambulatory, and post– acute care organizations—examines which vendors are most often considered, what factors most influence their decisions, and how current customers rate vendor performance.
Healthcare IT Investor Update:
2018 Q4
2018 Q4
In the 2018 Q4 Investor Update, KLAS investment experts Chris Chandler and Ben Brown discuss the future of Apple’s health records app, market share data for the ambulatory EMR space, and why there’s big interest in hospital revenue cycle management. Find out how these high energy topics will impact the investing landscape moving forward.
EHR Mastery—Scribes and Voice Recognition Not the Answer (Yet):
An Arch Collaborative Impact Report
An Arch Collaborative Impact Report
The burden of documentation
is a seemingly never-ending uphill climb for providers. Scribes and voice
recognition are solutions advertised to help increase the usability of the EHR by
relieving some of this burden from the provider's shoulders. In the course of
research efforts to identify data-backed best practices regarding
documentation, KLAS found little evidence that scribes or voice recognition
significantly improve EHR satisfaction or efficiency.
Opioid Management Perception 2018:
EMR Vendors Being Pushed to Center Stage
EMR Vendors Being Pushed to Center Stage
More than 100 opioid-related overdose deaths occur in the United States every day, and the healthcare community knows that making changes at the point of care can help stem the tide of addiction. To discover what steps healthcare organizations are taking, KLAS asked over 100 leaders from organizations of all sizes to describe their plans for opioid management and to share what technology vendors they are looking to for help. Unlike traditional KLAS performance reports, this report is focused on discovering what strategies and technologies are top of mind as organizations implement, monitor, and improve their opioid stewardship strategies.
PACS 2018:
Achieving Success from Selection to Go-Live
Achieving Success from Selection to Go-Live
Consolidation among provider organizations continues to drive a high level of purchasing energy in the PACS space. In this report, KLAS aims to help organizations in any stage of the buying process—from vendor selection to go-live— by highlighting which vendors providers are purchasing and why, what to look for to avoid buyer’s remorse, and the keys to success after a vendor is selected.
Medical Device Security 2018:
What Are the Greatest Challenges and How Can They be Overcome? CHIME Edition
What Are the Greatest Challenges and How Can They be Overcome? CHIME Edition
While funding and strategy development have increased for security overall, healthcare organizations are bombarded from all sides by security attacks. Due to the patient-safety risks, many feel particularly vulnerable when it comes to medical device security. This report—a collaborative effort between the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME), the Association for Executives in Healthcare Information Security (AEHIS), KLAS, and provider organizations—aims to examine the current state of the industry and identify best practices for improvement. 148 interviewed provider organizations shared how confident they feel in their medical device security strategies, the most common challenges they face, their perceptions of the security and transparency of major medical device manufacturers, and the best practices they leverage to overcome medical device security challenges.
EHR Mastery—The Impact of Training:
An Arch Collaborative Impact Report
An Arch Collaborative Impact Report
Organizations occasionally look for a magical solution that will fix clinician dissatisfaction with the EHR. Unfortunately, because education is a human experience, there isn’t any one training program that will magically solve this dilemma. But what has been made clear—by analyzing survey responses from over 40,000 end users—is that good training has a profound and lasting impact on a clinician’s satisfaction with the EHR.
Medical Device Security 2018:
What Are the Greatest Challenges, and How Can They Be Overcome?
What Are the Greatest Challenges, and How Can They Be Overcome?
While funding and strategy development have increased for security overall, healthcare organizations are bombarded from all sides by security attacks. Due to the patient-safety risks, many feel particularly vulnerable when it comes to medical device security. This report—a collaborative effort between the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME), the Association for Executives in Healthcare Information Security (AEHIS), KLAS, and provider organizations—aims to examine the current state of the industry and identify best practices for improvement. 148 interviewed provider organizations shared how confident they feel in their medical device security strategies, the most common challenges they face, their perceptions of the security and transparency of major medical device manufacturers, and the best practices they leverage to overcome medical device security challenges.
Behavioral Health 2018:
A First Look at Behavioral Health EHR Performance
A First Look at Behavioral Health EHR Performance
The behavioral health EHR market segment is one of the lowest performing that KLAS measures (2nd percentile). While vendor performance is low across the board, most frustrated customers plan to stay with their behavioral health vendor due to limited resources and a lack of compelling alternatives. This report, KLAS’ first on behavioral health EHRs, is intended to give executives at behavioral health organizations a high-level overview of the market and to shine a spotlight on where vendors can improve. Specifically, this report dives into the behavioral health vendors used most frequently (in both inpatient and outpatient settings) and their performance in product quality, development, and service and support.
DHIS 2018—An Innovation Dilemma:
Truly Activating Patients in Their Own Care
Truly Activating Patients in Their Own Care
KLAS convened some of the most influential healthcare thinkers for its second annual investor conference, the KLAS Digital Health Investment Symposium, in Snowbird, Utah, August 14–15, 2018. Attendees included healthcare providers, healthcare payers, corporate development professionals, and representatives from private equity firms, venture-capital firms, digital health companies, health-system incubator companies, analyst firms, and investment banks. This white paper represents the collective insights from these healthcare executives exploring the difficult challenge of truly activating patients in their own care. Over the past two years, patient engagement has continued to be a high-energy market segment for innovation and investment according to KLAS’s Emerging HCIT Companies report as new companies continue to enter the market, attempting to solve complex provider needs. Due to this energy, KLAS asked these thought leaders to participate in a roundtable discussion to explore the biggest challenges and solutions relative to patient engagement to help push the industry to new innovation, investment, and solutions.
Remote Patient Monitoring 2018:
High Potential in a Shifting Landscape
High Potential in a Shifting Landscape
As provider organizations grapple with complex, strategic initiatives such as population health and patient engagement, a more tactical innovation is re-emerging: remote patient monitoring (RPM). RPM solutions monitor patients in-home by collecting biometric and behavioral data and alerting caregivers when intervention is needed. In this first RPM report, KLAS has partnered with the American Telemedicine Association (ATA) to examine why some organizations support little or no RPM and why others are more developed and are expanding their usage. This report also assesses the potential RPM vendors have to address the needs of patients and their healthcare providers in this shifting landscape. To validate RPM viability today, KLAS spoke with 25 organizations using seven leading RPM vendor platforms.
Ambulatory Therapy/Rehab 2018:
A Closer Look at the Specialty EMR Vendors
A Closer Look at the Specialty EMR Vendors
Utilization of ambulatory therapy/rehab services is expanding as healthcare providers, patients, and payers look for treatment options that are less risky and more cost effective than surgery and drug therapy. Some of the ambulatory organizations that provide these services use general (non-specialty) ambulatory EMRs. Others choose EMRs tailored specifically to the ambulatory therapy/ rehab market. Several vendors offer such products, but how well do these specialty vendors deliver solutions, relationships, and reporting that meet the market’s unique needs? What are their strengths and shortcomings?
Clinical Documentation Improvement (CDI) 2018:
Workflows and Prioritization Drive Quality and Financial Outcomes
Workflows and Prioritization Drive Quality and Financial Outcomes
Closing gaps in clinical documentation leads to improved revenue and higher documentation quality. Provider organizations using CDI tools need vendor partners who have proven solutions that can drive clinical and financial outcomes, enable smooth workflows in the midst of regulation changes, and prioritize CDI tasks to maximize the impact of clinical documentation specialists (CDSs). In examining these capabilities, this report primarily evaluates the performance of software vendors and their solutions, though CDI services firms are also evaluated regarding how well their guidance and training drive outcomes.
Release of Information (ROI) 2018:
Who Delivers Most Consistently Across Customers?
Who Delivers Most Consistently Across Customers?
In 2016, the small pool of release-of-information (ROI) services firms was shrunk even further by the merger of HealthPort and IOD, the two largest players in the ROI market. Today, Ciox Health—the new firm created by the merger—continues its predecessors’ market-share dominance but has fallen well below competitors MRO and Verisma in terms of customer satisfaction. A newly released automated tool from Ciox Health has some dissatisfied customers optimistic that their experience will improve, but others are considering MRO and Verisma as viable alternatives. This report examines the strengths and weaknesses of each firm to help organizations decide which is right for them.
Patient Access 2018:
A Deeper Dive Into Broad Adoption
A Deeper Dive Into Broad Adoption
With the rise of high-deductible health plans, provider organizations are increasingly utilizing tools and processes that facilitate patient payments and guard against bad debt, and they are more reliant on technology to manage patient access activities. Hoping for a more streamlined workflow, many are consolidating to a single vendor for multiple tools. As this transition continues, how does the experience of broad adopters† compare to that of limited adopters? Is automated preauthorization the game-changing functionality vendors describe and customers seek? What impact are current patient access solutions having? KLAS spoke to 60+ broad adopters in addition to 70+ customers with more limited adoption to get their feedback.
European EMR 2018
Europe has one of the most dynamic and competitive EMR markets in the world, with active tenders in nearly every region. Amidst this activity, multiregional vendors are becoming more prevalent, forcing regional solutions to redefine themselves in order to stay relevant. To determine which vendors are best meeting current customers’ expectations and needs, this report examines KLAS market share data as well as performance feedback gathered in 100+ interviews with decision-makers at customer organizations in 12 European countries.
Physician Scheduling 2018:
Cost-Effective Gains in Efficiency
Cost-Effective Gains in Efficiency
Physician scheduling solutions are receiving more attention as departments and organizations recognize the increasing inefficiency of scheduling by hand. With enterprise-wide deployment of such solutions on the rise, provider organizations are asking which solutions can save them time while simultaneously helping them reduce physician burnout, create fair and balanced schedules, and ensure 24/7 coverage. This report examines the degree to which market-leading physician scheduling solutions are saving administrative time, which are most effective for enterprise use, and whether promises of mobile convenience make a difference.
Nurse & Staff Scheduling 2018:
Cost-Reducing Convenience & Mobility
Cost-Reducing Convenience & Mobility
KLAS will explore which nurse and physician staffing solutions are most successful in helping providers become more efficient with scheduling as to save time, and reduce overstaffing and overtime. Also, to differentiate vendors based on mobile applications, predictive scheduling, and acuity-based scheduling (nurse only).
Worksite Health Services 2018:
A First Look at Firms’ Performance
A First Look at Firms’ Performance
In the field of worksite health services—here defined by KLAS as employer-sponsored healthcare delivery and prevention services done at or near the employer worksite—options abound when it comes to selecting a firm. How can employer organizations ensure they pick the firm that best meets their needs? Which firms deliver the best worksite health services experience to employer organizations?
Based on feedback from 86 employer organizations, this report goes beyond KLAS’ previous research—“Worksite Health Services 2018: Market Introduction and Vendor Guide,” in which worksite health services firms were identified and a market framework was established—to give deeper insight into why specific firms are chosen and how they perform.
Healthcare Business Intelligence 2018:
Who’s Advancing Data Analytics & Infrastructure?
Who’s Advancing Data Analytics & Infrastructure?
Organizations’ business intelligence and analytics infrastructure is often composed of multiple solutions working in conjunction and on top of one another. As standard capabilities like data acquisition, storage, and management become commonplace, providers are experimenting with solutions that leverage more advanced capabilities to reduce costs and improve outcomes. This report validates those advanced capabilities, explores the healthcare outcomes being achieved by vendors’ clients with the most advanced usage of their solutions, and attempts to provide some helpful categorization in a market with a lot of options and historically little transparency.
Emerging HCIT Companies 2018
Each year, KLAS conducts approximately 20,000 annual interviews with healthcare providers; during these interviews, insights into new vendors’ approaches to trying to solve problems in healthcare are often shared. As a follow-up to last year’s Emerging Vendors report, KLAS spoke to more than 100 provider leaders and asked them to share which new/innovative vendors they have encountered in the past year. Additionally, guidance provided by our provider partners pushes KLAS to find the newest vendors and solutions for tackling some of healthcare’s biggest problems.
While not always well known, these vendors have stood out to KLAS for the types of solutions and/or approaches to problem-solving that they appear to offer. Through provider interviews and other sources such as KLAS website search data and internal research, KLAS has identified many vendors that are not quite ready to be fully measured but are in the process of gaining mindshare among healthcare providers.
Go-Live Support 2018:
The Bar Has Been Raised, Which Firms Can Meet It?
The Bar Has Been Raised, Which Firms Can Meet It?
The bar for go-live support has been raised, with many healthcare organizations now expecting their firm to handle the complex task of managing and planning logistics for their go-live resources, who could number in the hundreds. Though most healthcare organizations are satisfied with these services, some firms do not meet all expectations. KLAS spoke with 69 provider organizations (over half of the hospital organizations in the US who have used go-live services in the last 18 months) to better understand how they measure go-live success as well as to discover how well their go-live firm met their expectations for managing personnel, providing knowledgeable resources, and effectively planning and coordinating logistics.
Healthcare IT Investor Update:
2018 Q3
2018 Q3
In the KLAS Investor Update, Q3 of 2018, KLAS’ Director of Investment Research Chris Chandler discusses; global EHR market share and current trends, US community hospital market share, and which vendors are succeeding in population health management.
Smart Pumps 2018:
Deeper Partnering Needed
Deeper Partnering Needed
With increased pressure to reduce medication-administration costs and improve efficiency, provider organizations are looking for smart pump vendors capable of being strategic partners. In interviews with KLAS, organizations identify several ways vendors can do this: (1) develop strong customer relationships that extend beyond just the implementation; (2) drive EMR interoperability; (3) help customers get strong financial value from the pumps; and (4) provide analytics and reports that produce actionable insights. This report aims to discover which vendors deliver best in these key areas.
Precision Medicine Vendor Validations 2018:
The Voice of the Vendor - Report 1 of 2
The Voice of the Vendor - Report 1 of 2
Given its potential to help providers deliver better, more targeted care and dramatically improve patient outcomes, precision medicine is a growing area of interest for many provider organizations. Those looking to develop a precision medicine program can find it confusing to determine which of the hundreds of vendors in the market will be most helpful. To add clarity as to how some of the different vendors perform, what functionality they offer, and what first steps organizations can take to establish a precision medicine program, KLAS has embarked on a two-part report on the topic.
Through research, interviews, and association events, KLAS has identified a small number of precision medicine vendors who have high mindshare among healthcare providers. This first report focuses on these vendors. Each was invited to share details regarding their market perspective and product capabilities. In a second report, KLAS will interview live customers in order to validate each vendor's claims and provide further details on their offerings. It will also validate additional vendors not covered in this first report.
Patient Intake Management 2018:
Solutions for a More Efficient Practice
Solutions for a More Efficient Practice
How often do patients have to fill out a form like the one below, submitting the same information over and over again—information that clinic employees must then spend time reviewing and transcribing into patient records? Patient intake management solutions offer a potential remedy to this inefficient process as they can drastically reduce the churn, duplication, and storage requirements that accompany traditional paper forms. In addition to increasing efficiency, improving data capture, and boosting patient satisfaction, these solutions can also create a foundation for patient engagement programs and can have direct financial impacts. Which solutions best help ambulatory practices as they seek to automate processes, improve quality of care, increase efficiency, and drive patient satisfaction?
Payer Quality and Risk Analytics 2018:
Different Options for Different Needs
Different Options for Different Needs
Ever-evolving HEDIS metrics continue to demand payer attention, but annual quality reporting alone is not an effective way to close care gaps or reduce costs. Health plans have repeatedly expressed a need for more frequent HEDIS reporting and deeper analytics capabilities that enable them to empower proactive care interventions and improve outcomes for their members. KLAS asked 84 health plans which vendors go beyond the required HEDIS check boxes to help clients forecast risk and improve quality.
Digital Rounding 2018:
A First Look at Digital Rounding Vendor Performance
A First Look at Digital Rounding Vendor Performance
Increasingly, payers are adjusting reimbursements based on the quality of the patient experience. This has led to increased interest in rounding solutions that help hospitals measure and improve patient satisfaction during patients’ stays. Solutions are offered from several different vendor types, including those that already specialize in IPS, patient outreach, nurse communications, and consulting; as well as standalone vendors who have not yet been on the KLAS radar. With so many vendors in play, this report will clarify for providers what their options are and what the potential experience will be with the various vendors.
NHS Interoperability 2018:
Data-Sharing Efforts, Obstacles, and Progress in England
Data-Sharing Efforts, Obstacles, and Progress in England
NHS England’s Five-Year Forward View and the National Information Board’s response have thrust interoperable systems into the national spotlight in England, including the development of a Local Health and Care Record Exemplar programme. This report represents KLAS’ first look at interoperability within the NHS. The report examines how well organisations (i.e., primary, secondary, mental health, community, and social care organisations) are able to receive outside patient data, and it will serve as a baseline for future research. What types of electronic data sharing are taking place today, how frequently, and with what benefit? What technologies are relied on most? How are suppliers perceived by customers relative to the suppliers’ role in facilitating interoperability?
Apple Health Records 2018:
Early Participants Weigh In
Early Participants Weigh In
On January 24, Apple announced Apple Health Records, a new iPhone feature for downloading, aggregating, and viewing patient medical records. The revelation created a stir for at least a few reasons: (1) Apple is a consumer-oriented healthcare outsider; (2) Apple is attempting to make inroads where peers Google and Microsoft have failed; and (3) the feature has the potential to impact millions of patients given the iPhone’s broad customer base. Many articles and blogs about this announcement have already been written, but this report goes deeper. KLAS interviewed executives at all 12 of the early adopter health systems that partnered with Apple through the beta process to ask: How real is this capability and what is the expected impact? How soon might it make a difference? What is the experience like so far and what hurdles do providers face? What challenges does Apple face and how likely are they to succeed where others have flopped?
Front-End Speech 2018:
Insights from Organizations with the Highest Adoption
Insights from Organizations with the Highest Adoption
Front-end speech recognition tools have long held the promise of increasing EMR usability for physicians and helping to decrease costs. In reality, a lack of widespread adoption has hampered healthcare organizations’ ability to fully realize an impact. To clarify this, KLAS asked Dolbey, MModal, and Nuance to provide lists of a few of their customers with the highest levels of adoption; these providers shared insights into what impacts widespread adoption of front-end speech technology can have.
Medication Inventory Management 2018:
How Well Are Vendors Positioned to Close the Gaps?
How Well Are Vendors Positioned to Close the Gaps?
Enterprise Medication Inventory Management (EMIM) continues to be a challenge for providers as they attempt to aggregate data from disparate systems to provide actionable intelligence for efficient medication inventory management. This report will highlight the relative strengths and weaknesses of medication inventory management solutions. Including how broadly they are deployed within healthcare organizations, with what solutions they are successfully interfaced, and their relative strengths on driving optimal workflows and providing actionable intelligence.
Patient Accounting 2018:
Transitioning from Legacy Systems
Transitioning from Legacy Systems
The legacy patient accounting solutions that provider organizations have used for years are often stable and highly customized. However, many organizations are now cautiously moving to newer PA systems in pursuit of clinical integration. These legacy conversions go primarily to Cerner and Epic, who are the only vendors with enough such conversions to be included in this report. The page below gives a brief overview of the overall market, while the rest of the report zeroes in exclusively on Cerner and Epic.
Clinical Process Improvement 2018:
Paving the Way for Improved Clinical Processes
Paving the Way for Improved Clinical Processes
Tools that provide clinical-process insights assist healthcare leaders as they identify clinical areas in need of improvement and facilitate operational interventions. Use cases include improving staff efficiency, compliance, and workflow via clinical data aggregation, analytics, and reporting functionality.
Community (1–200 Beds) HIS 2018:
Innovation Wanted
Innovation Wanted
With market energy extremely high in the community space, KLAS is planning to do study around the unique needs of the providers whose organizations are on the smaller end of the inpatient hospital market (<200 beds). Providers in this space need the focus and attention from their vendor partners to be successful and to provide the needed functionality for their service lines to take care of their patient populations. Financial viability is top of mind for provider leadership teams in the community space and providers need a more dynamic and forward thinking approach to help them become more financially secure as they begin to take on new risk based agreements and stay viable in the coming years.
Decision Insights Report 2018:
National Trends & Best Practices
National Trends & Best Practices
The Decision Insights National Trends and Best Practices report will help providers understand which vendors have market energy, are being considered in purchase decisions, and why their peers are considering those vendors. The report will also explore the relationship between market energy, provider retention, and provider satisfaction in determining which vendors are delivering a superior overall experience for provider organizations. KLAS will be highlighting 30+ vendors in 22 market segments.
Healthcare IT Investor Update:
2018 Q2
2018 Q2
In this quarter’s installment of KLAS’ Investor Update, learn what providers are saying about Cerner’s patient accounting solution, how athenahealth can deliver to smaller hospitals, how Allscript’s acquisition model is affecting customer satisfaction and if Evolent can deliver on value-based care services.
Post–Acute Care 2018:
Providers' Simple Request
Providers' Simple Request
After five years of tracking the status of EMR interoperability between acute care and ambulatory environments, leading providers, vendors, and other industry stakeholders urged KLAS in a new direction: measure post–acute care organizations’ ability to share patient records across the continuum of care. Based on 160 interviews, this report represents an initial “spot check” for homecare and long-term care organizations using leading post–acute care EMR vendors. It reveals an environment very different from acute care and ambulatory settings in terms of expectations, progress, and quite simply awareness of EMR interoperability strategies among both providers and vendors.
Interoperability 2018:
Plug-and-Play Patient-Record Sharing via CommonWell and Carequality
Plug-and-Play Patient-Record Sharing via CommonWell and Carequality
In a major announcement at HIMSS 2013, CEOs from Cerner, McKesson, Allscripts, athenahealth, and Greenway formed CommonWell Health Alliance to expedite low/no-cost sharing of patient records locally and nationally. In 2016 athenahealth, Epic, eClinicalWorks, and NextGen Healthcare announced they would use the Carequality interoperability framework to accelerate the sharing. At this point these major vendors have set expectations of patient record sharing with one of these options. This report clarifies the progress major EMR vendors have made in sharing via these publicly touted plug-and-play approaches and how that impacts you as the leader of a healthcare organization.
Healthcare Consulting and Services 2018:
Which Firms Deliver a True Partnering Experience?
Which Firms Deliver a True Partnering Experience?
The need for partners is stronger now than it has ever been as healthcare organizations continue their journey to provide seamless care across the continuum, shift from fee-for-service to fee-for-value, reduce costs, and ultimately improve patient care. KLAS has published numerous reports on a wide range of consulting services, but this is the first that focuses on which firms healthcare organizations consider true partners. KLAS interviewed decision makers from 246 healthcare organizations about the consulting and services firms they have used to discover which they consider true partners and which they would avoid using again.
Artificial Intelligence in Imaging 2018:
Early Adopters Speak Out
Early Adopters Speak Out
The HIT industry is abuzz with talk about artificial intelligence (AI), a broad term used to describe the use of algorithms and software to approximate human cognition in the analysis of complex data. Of all the healthcare areas with potential AI applications, imaging has received the greatest attention. Vendors and providers in this space are looking forward to using AI to improve diagnosis processes, develop treatment protocols, and personalize patient care, among other use cases. In this report, 81 healthcare organizations (primarily large IDNS) help separate hype from reality by sharing details regarding their early imaging AI deployments and plans and by identifying which vendors they see as early leaders.
Performance Global de PEP 2017:
Mantendo o Ritmo em um Mercado em Transformação
Mantendo o Ritmo em um Mercado em Transformação
Com os milhões sendo investidos em sistemas de PEP em todo o mundo, as organizações não podem se dar aoluxo de tomar a decisão errada. As implantações enfrentam um escrutínio nunca antes visto, de modo que asorganizações que esperam evitar a reinvenção da roda buscam orientações e recomendações sólidas de seusfornecedores. Quais os fornecedores que melhor ajudam os clientes a maximizar seus investimentos e a conduzira aderência clínica profunda? Quais as soluções que melhor atendem às necessidades do corpo clínico? A KLASentrevistou 215 organizações em 34 países para descobrir isso.
Clinical Mobility 2018:
Leveraging a Smartphone Strategy
Leveraging a Smartphone Strategy
Smartphones are becoming increasingly common, and healthcare organizations often lack a strategy on how to best leverage these powerful devices. This report, KLAS’ first on smartphones, sets out to clarify common strategies in healthcare (see chart at right). Which vendors are most prevalent as shared- or personal-use devices? What are vendors’ key strengths and weaknesses in healthcare? How have organizations successfully incorporated BYOD into their strategy?
Outsourced Coding 2018:
Value-Adds Key in Evolving Market
Value-Adds Key in Evolving Market
Post ICD-10, provider organizations’ needs for inpatient outsourced coding are evolving as demand
for this service is dropping sharply. Amidst this scaling back, the firms most likely to have staying
power will be those able to adapt and provide additional value beyond quality coding. Since coding
firm options abound, this report seeks to help provider organizations identify those firms that best
deliver the value-adds they need, such as strategic partnering, leadership, and volume flexibility.
Worksite Health Services 2018:
Market Introduction and Vendor Guide
Market Introduction and Vendor Guide
This report gives provides a market landscape and vendor guide into a new area where KLAS is starting to do research: worksite health. Commonly adopted by mid-size and large companies across all industries (i.e. manufacturing, retail, finance, healthcare), worksite health services provide convenient and ongoing healthcare services at the workplace, with employees (and sometimes their families) being the direct recipients. Employer organizations contract with vendors in worksite health services with a few main goals: reduce healthcare costs and improve employee health and productivity. KLAS’ introductory report in this market outlines the major vendors providing broad services and shows differences between them based on company structure and experience, available offerings, and their approach to the market.
Healthcare IT Investor Update:
2018 Q1
2018 Q1
KLAS publishes quarterly investor updates on healthcare IT trends to watch. In this Q1 2018 iteration, KLAS dives into who the most deployed non-EMR vendors are, the differences in deployment and functionality gaps, physician workflow, and Arcadia’s VBC technology’s impact on analytics and outcomes.
Patient Communications 2017:
How Are Organizations Reaching Out to Patients?
How Are Organizations Reaching Out to Patients?
Patient portals seem like the perfect tools for engaging patients in their care. They are pervasive, multi-functioned, integrated with EMRs, and . . . poorly adopted by patients, who have little interest in logging in to them unless they absolutely must. To compensate, provider organizations have increasingly deployed outreach tools that automatically push messages and content to patients’ phones and mobile devices. Organizations say these tools are very successful and that their use is expanding. Seeking greater value and impact for customers, vendors are extending capabilities beyond their individual niches. This report examines the different ways vendors are helping engage patients and delivering value to customers.
Ambulatory Surgery Centers 2017:
The Evolving Landscape of Ambulatory Surgery Center Solutions
The Evolving Landscape of Ambulatory Surgery Center Solutions
When selecting a technology partner, ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) have very different choices today than they did in the past. The number of vendor options has declined following Surgical Information Systems’ (SIS) acquisitions of AmkaiSolutions (2014) and SourceMed (April 2017). How well has SIS performed for these acquired customers, how do the options from SIS compare with those from the remaining established competitor, HSTpathways, and what new and emerging options do ASCs have? In KLAS’ first report on ASC solutions, 89 respondents from 80 unique ASCs share their experiences with the various solutions and vendors currently available.
Ambulatory EMR Usability 2017:
Leadership Perceptions of Vendor Performance
Leadership Perceptions of Vendor Performance
In ambulatory settings, EMR usability as well as the efficiencies of a well-built EMR are hugely important for physicians. All vendors claim they are focused on improving physician usability, yet in KLAS’ previous usability reports, no vendors excelled at meeting usability expectations. What has changed over the past two years and how are these changes helping or hurting physicians’ abilities to deliver care? To find out, KLAS interviewed ambulatory organizations with 11 or more physicians, speaking mainly to physician leaders and end-user physicians.
Healthcare Management Consulting 2017:
Keeping Pace with a Transforming Market
Keeping Pace with a Transforming Market
As challenges in healthcare become more complex, stakeholders more demanding, and value-based care more important, healthcare organizations have increasingly high expectations of the consultants they engage. KLAS interviewed 299 provider and payer executives for a better understanding of how the various management consulting firms impact clients’ success, the top attributes of successful firm/client relationships, and clients’ biggest hurdles when engaging firms.
Data Loss Prevention 2017:
Optimization Support Drives Satisfaction; Few Solutions Used Broadly
Optimization Support Drives Satisfaction; Few Solutions Used Broadly
Allowing PHI to wrongfully get outside a healthcare organization’s network can create sizeable regulatory and financial consequences for organizations and erode public trust. Risks to a healthcare organization’s sensitive data—whether unintentional or malicious—must be identified and neutralized. In order to understand how organizations are addressing these challenges, KLAS spoke with 100 security professionals, largely CISOs, to learn about their DLP strategies. While most organizations are confident in their solution’s ability to prevent PHI loss, KLAS uncovered the capabilities providers are most commonly adopting, how broadly DLP solutions are deployed, which DLP solutions require significant support and optimization, and how actionable the insights are that DLP vendors are producing.
Off-Premises Computing Perception 2017:
Energy Shifts to the Cloud
Energy Shifts to the Cloud
Over 70% of healthcare organizations that participated in this study have moved at least some applications or IT infrastructure off-premises. While most of those using off-premises computing are doing so through a hosting environment, future plans lean heavily toward the cloud. For this research, 144 US-based healthcare organizations were asked about the off-premises cloud and hosting options they are currently using, whether they are considering moving to the cloud, why they would or would not move in this direction, and which vendors they are considering or would consider for future off-premises computing needs.
Ambulatory RCM Services 2017:
Finding Consistent Partners
Finding Consistent Partners
Ambulatory revenue cycle management (RCM) services continue to increase in popularity. Just three years ago in 2014, KLAS’s first look included only five vendors. Today, provider organizations have over a dozen options to choose from. This report covers ten of the most prominent vendors that have proven capable of scaling beyond single-physician practices. With considerable growth, however, often come growing pains. Which vendors have established themselves as consistent, reliable partners? Who scales to best meet the needs of larger clinics? And how much do customers expect from these vendors as they look to value-based care on the horizon? KLAS interviewed 174 clinics to find out.
Acute EMR Usability 2017:
Physician Leaders Say There is Still Work to be Done
Physician Leaders Say There is Still Work to be Done
All major EMR vendors claim to be focused on creating a highly usable experience for clinician users, but what is the day-to-day user experience really like? KLAS interviewed 91 physician leadership professionals to gather their unique, representative insights as to the truth of vendors’ claims and the current state of EMR usability. Including feedback regarding organizational, end-user, and vendor dynamics, these leadership perspectives encapsulate broader insights as to the key successes, shortcomings, and frustrations clinicians currently experience with EMR usability. Though perceptions from physician leadership often differ from the end user experience, these views encompass a wider view of vendor performance.
MEDITECH Web Ambulatory:
Insights into the Early-Adopter Experience
Insights into the Early-Adopter Experience
For years, MEDITECH has had a successful yet conservative approach to the market. Their newest offering, Web Ambulatory, represents a bold departure and has been widely anticipated by customers for its promise of inpatient/outpatient integration and web-based functionality. How is it going so far? KLAS interviewed 19 of the 22 organizations live on Web Ambulatory to highlight the successes achieved and the challenges faced by early adopters of both the EMR and practice management (PM) pieces.
Talent Management 2017:
High Performers in Performance Management
High Performers in Performance Management
Many provider organizations are interested in having a single solution that can competently meet all their talent management needs. Because talent management suites are often implemented one or two modules at a time, KLAS scrutinized satisfaction with performance management functionality within the context of broader talent management performance and found that organizations have a number of comprehensive, high-performing options.
Creating the EMR Advantage:
The Arch Collaborative EMR Best Practices Study
The Arch Collaborative EMR Best Practices Study
We built EMRs to help clinicians deliver dramatically better care and to be more efficient in that care. If clinicians everywhere consistently praised EMRs for revolutionizing the practice of medicine, wouldn't that be an indication that the EMR was a success? But that is not happening. In late 2016, in an effort to turn the tide of EMR frustration, KLAS gathered with a handful of provider organizations with the idea of creating a common end-user satisfaction survey to be used as a means of establishing satisfaction benchmarks and enabling provider organizations to learn from each other’s successes and failures. Today, this effort—called the Arch Collaborative—has collected 15,535 user perspectives from 55 organizations.
Cornerstone Summit 2017:
Population Health Definition, Outcomes Measurement, and Best Practices
Population Health Definition, Outcomes Measurement, and Best Practices
As a follow-up summit to the 2016 Population Health Keystone Summit, executives from 23 healthcare services and software firms, along with leaders from 27 provider organizations and 7 payer organizations, gathered just outside of Salt Lake City. This white paper is a synopsis of the Summit activities and findings.
Digital Health Investment Symposium:
Where Do We Need to Focus Future Healthcare Technology Investments?
Where Do We Need to Focus Future Healthcare Technology Investments?
KLAS convened its first annual investor conference, The KLAS Digital Health Investment Symposium, in Park City, Utah on September 27 and 28, 2017. The intent of this white paper is to give corporate development and investors an idea of the major challenges in healthcare and provide ideas for possible solutions and areas for investment so that current challenges can be mitigated.
Claims and Denials Management 2017:
Support & New Tools Highly Valued in Well-Established Market
Support & New Tools Highly Valued in Well-Established Market
With strong, easy-to-use claims-editing functionality now a commodity among claims management solutions, what differentiates the vendors in this market, and what areas do healthcare organizations identify as being next on their wish lists? Interviews with 296 healthcare organizations reveal three key factors that organizations are looking for from their claims management vendor today: stellar support, improved denials management functionality, and better drill-down analytics. The first two are examined below.
Continuum of Care 2017:
A Comprehensive Look at EMRs in a Connected Continuum
A Comprehensive Look at EMRs in a Connected Continuum
For healthcare to make the shift to value-based care, the care continuum will have to change from a series of disconnected siloes to a connected ecosystem. This report looks across the care continuum to examine which vendors—including both enterprise and single-setting EMR vendors—are best positioned to help customers successfully adapt in each care setting (i.e., ambulatory care, acute care, homecare, long-term care [LTC], behavioral health, and urgent care).
Care Management 2017:
Solutions Struggle to Keep Pace
Solutions Struggle to Keep Pace
As reimbursement and care models continue to evolve, health plans pursuing a member-centric approach to care management have increasingly higher expectations of their care management software solutions. Accordingly, solutions are struggling to keep pace with health plans that are moving toward population health and wellness. Which vendors are most supportive of their customers’ goals and innovative enough to meet changing needs? KLAS spoke with 71 health plans to find out.
Managing the Cost of Care:
How Are Provider Organizations Tackling the Cost of Care?
How Are Provider Organizations Tackling the Cost of Care?
With healthcare costs at unsustainable levels, the industry finds itself on a trajectory from fee-for-service to value-based care. Provider organizations who aren’t prepared to manage cost and take on risk while also maintaining or improving quality will have a hard time surviving. In this first-time report, KLAS takes an early look at the various ways organizations that already have a strategy are tackling this challenge and what vendors they are using or considering to help them. Interviews were conducted mainly with C-level executives, mostly from organizations with 500+ beds. Only the strategies and vendors most commonly brought up in interviews are discussed below.
ED Usability 2017:
Enterprise Considerations, Not Workflow, Shaping the Future
Enterprise Considerations, Not Workflow, Shaping the Future
For years, best-of-breed vendors have shown that it is possible to deliver an EDIS that meets provider organizations’ needs and expectations for usability and functionality. As the market shifts and enterprise vendors play a larger and larger role, they will need to keep up with the standards set by the high-functioning, best-of-breed solutions. To determine the impact that the most highly adopted ED vendors are having on usability and which are meeting customers’ needs, KLAS sought out hard-to-obtain feedback from physician leadership and ED end users.
Healthcare IT Investor Update:
2017 Q4
2017 Q4
KLAS releases to investors quarterly updates on healthcare IT trends to watch. In this Q4 2017 update, KLAS discusses the Allscripts-McKesson acquisition, athenahealth's progress in the hospital market, current news about eClinicalWorks, and energy in the practice management space. Find out how these recent changes are impacting the market as a whole.
Telehealth Virtual Care Platforms 2017:
Who Is Supporting Healthcare Organizations’ Abilities to Expand Virtual Care?
Who Is Supporting Healthcare Organizations’ Abilities to Expand Virtual Care?
Healthcare organizations have found that virtual care platforms (VCPs) reduce delivery costs, increase access to new patients, and allow organizations to deliver better care. While these platforms are just one aspect of the rapidly evolving telehealth market, a number of vendors now offer virtual care platforms supporting diverse visit types and use cases. Some have only a handful of live organizations today, but all are growing. Working with the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME), KLAS reached out to healthcare organizations facilitating live video visits on virtual care platforms to provide an early look at who is helping organizations expand telehealth services today.
Emerging Companies 2017
athenahealth for Hospitals:
Insights into the Early-Adopter Experience
Insights into the Early-Adopter Experience
athenahealth entered the underserved community hospital EMR market in 2015 with the acquisition of RazorInsights. Since then, provider interest has skyrocketed, with athenaOne for Hospitals and Health Systems being the third most frequently selected hospital EMR solution in the US in both 2015 and 2016. This report takes an early look at the progress athenahealth has made and the overall experience of early adopters. Speaking with executives, IT professionals, and departmental end users, KLAS interviewed all of the 8 hospitals who contracted directly with athenahealth to convert from another EMR and who came live by February 2017. KLAS also spoke with 28 other hospitals who contracted with athenahealth but were not yet live as of February 2017 to get their thoughts on how things are progressing. Hospitals who migrated from the acquired RazorInsights platform were excluded from this research as their experience is atypical of what prospective clients could expect.
Radiation Therapy 2017:
Technology Outpacing Interoperability
Technology Outpacing Interoperability
Since KLAS last reported on radiation therapy in 2014, the overall high-performing market has seen some significant changes—adoption of Elekta’s go-forward platform (the Versa HD) has increased, and Varian customers have seen positive shifts in support and relationships. This report seeks to help provider organizations better understand radiation therapy vendor performance in the areas of functionality, support, and integration and will also examine the widening gap between the highest and lowest performers in the treatment planning market.
Allscripts' McKesson EIS Business Acquisition 2017:
Frustrated Paragon Customers Hope for Quick Development
Frustrated Paragon Customers Hope for Quick Development
In August 2017, Allscripts announced their intentions to purchase McKesson's Enterprise Information Solutions. This announcement comes after a period of uncertainty regarding McKesson’s plans for the future of Paragon and other EIS solutions. KLAS reached out to current Paragon customers to gauge how they are reacting to the news. Do Paragon clients feel the acquisition puts them in a better position? Does it change any customers’ long-term plans? To find out, KLAS got perspectives from 38 organizations (30% of all organizations using Paragon).
Cornerstone Summit 2017:
Interoperability
Interoperability
The Cornerstone Summit on Interoperability represents an ongoing desire of provider organizations to work together across care settings, side by side with vendors, industry groups, and regulatory partners to learn from past interoperability measurements and offer recommendations to better assess our progress and needs into the future.
Antimicrobial Stewardship 2017:
AMS Tools Significantly Driving Patient Interventions
AMS Tools Significantly Driving Patient Interventions
In response to the growing threat of antibiotic resistance and the increase in government regulation regarding antibiotic usage, healthcare organizations are stepping up their efforts to treat patients with the right antibiotics, in the right doses, and for the right duration. Many have already moved from or are looking to move from the manual, paper processes of the past to software systems that can help them better and more efficiently achieve their antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) goals. As is often the case in markets where many users are switching from manual to automated processes for the first time, users’ initial reactions to their AMS technology have been positive. But which vendors are best enabling customers to intervene, track internal metrics, and optimize their use of their AMS system?
Global Healthcare IT Consulting:
Which Firms Are Considered for Implementation and Advisory Work?
Which Firms Are Considered for Implementation and Advisory Work?
With EMR implementations outside the US on the rise, many provider organizations have asked KLAS which firms they can turn to for help in planning for or implementing an EMR. Within healthcare organizations, resources for strategizing and implementing are often stretched thin, and this report—KLAS’ first on consulting firms outside the US—highlights how these organizations perceive healthcare IT (HIT) consulting firms. Who are they considering for upcoming projects, for what purpose, and who has mindshar e?
Practice Management 2017 (Over 10 Physicians):
Many Vendors Struggle to Provide Consistent Experience across Practice Size
Many Vendors Struggle to Provide Consistent Experience across Practice Size
To find the right practice management solution for their organization, large (over 75 physicians) and midsize (11–75 physicians) ambulatory practices need to know which vendors can meet their specific support, functionality, customization, and integration needs. The larger the practice, the more complex those needs are—how do the solutions perform for each practice size, and which are best able to handle the increased intricacy of larger practices?
eClinicalWorks 2017:
Snapshot of Customer Reactions to the DOJ Settlement
Snapshot of Customer Reactions to the DOJ Settlement
On May 31, 2017, news broke that EHR vendor eClinicalWorks had reached a settlement with the Department of Justice over allegations stemming from the False Claims Act. Subsequently, a number of healthcare providers reached out to KLAS asking how customers were responding and what implications the settlement held for eClinicalWorks’ customer base moving forward. KLAS reached out to users who had previously rated eClinicalWorks to see how their satisfaction and future plans with eClinicalWorks have changed.
Smart Pump/EMR Interoperability 2017:
First Look at Interoperability Performance
First Look at Interoperability Performance
In the last few years, the number of hospitals live with smart pump/EMR interoperability (meaning both autoprogramming and autodocumentation) has grown from just a handful to roughly 200. Though this is still a small portion of all hospitals in the US, many providers identify interoperability as the most important next step to make infusions safer. This report provides a first-time look at user satisfaction with interoperability workflows and also examines which pump vendors are taking the initiative to move this technology along and what EMR vendors are doing to improve workflows and reporting.
Healthcare IT Investor Update:
2017 Q3
2017 Q3
Implementation Services 2017
According to KLAS’ 2016 Healthcare Consulting report, providers anticipate using services firms to help with implementations more than with any other area. In order to help providers narrow down the seemingly endless number of implementation firms, this report identifies the type of implementation work each firm performs, including business solutions implementation, enterprise implementation leadership, support and staffing, and go-live support. KLAS spoke with 660 organizations who provided insights on what products these firms have experience implementing, what implementation services they offer, and how well they live up to expectations.
Health Insurance Enrollment Solutions 2017
This first-time KLAS report takes an early look at the vendor solutions used for health insurance exchanges and insurance enrollment in the ACA market. Faced with the uncertainty, political instability, and complex regulation that characterize the ACA market today, healthcare payers are searching for vendors who can help them successfully weather the storm. Based on interviews with healthcare payer executives, this KLAS report gives initial but important insight into how well—or poorly—some of the key solution vendors are meeting needs.
Interactive Patient Systems 2017:
Turning Interactivity into Outcomes
Turning Interactivity into Outcomes
Interactive patient systems (IPS) represent a major investment compared to the televisions and video players they replace. Fortunately, IPS solutions have been largely successful in meeting two key needs: educating and entertaining patients. But that is just the beginning of what IPS solutions can do, say vendors. Expanded capabilities—such as EMR integration, real-time patient communication, and additional entertainment options—promise to further improve patients’ experiences and engagement. This report examines which IPS vendors most consistently deliver on their customers’ expected outcomes.
Patient Flow 2017:
No Reason to Wait
No Reason to Wait
Managing the flow of patients in an acute care setting is one of the more complicated challenges confronting providers today. With multiple robust and improving patient flow solutions available, there is no reason for healthcare organizations to put off optimizing their patient flow performance.
EMR Improvement Collaborative:
Working Together to Improve EMR Usability
Working Together to Improve EMR Usability
The KLAS EMR Improvement Collaborative was created to help healthcare organizations learn from one another. KLAS measures the usability of EMRs and providers' skills and satisfaction with the EMRs in order to learn the keys to maximizing EMR efficiency.
CAPD 2017:
An Early Look
An Early Look
The new technology of computer-assisted physician documentation (CAPD) is gaining interest from providers, most of whom see CAPD as an additional clinical documentation improvement (CDI) tool. Vendors are promising solutions that improve accuracy by reviewing documentation and then querying physicians for clarification. As CAPD adoption expands, early adopters are seeing initial benefits and are optimistic about leveraging CAPD to further improve documentation completeness and financial outcomes. KLAS asked early adopters how well the technology integrates into their workflows, what improvements they have achieved, and what factors affect physician adoption.
Sepsis 2017:
Which Vendors Can Help?
Which Vendors Can Help?
Sepsis is not a new concern for healthcare providers, but many organizations hope to leverage the learning of early pioneers who have automated the detection of both septic and pre-septic patients. For this report, KLAS interviewed organizations using vendor-supplied sepsis technology and services and also asked those yet to implement what their plans are for the future and how focused their EMR and surveillance/infection control vendors are on improving sepsis outcomes. While this report examines provider use of vendor-supplied sepsis technology and services, other providers may address sepsis more broadly via the automation of infection control.
Freestanding Emergency Centers 2017:
An Early Look at An Emerging Market
An Early Look at An Emerging Market
In 2009, the first freestanding emergency center (FEC) opened its doors†. In the years since, hundreds of such facilities have opened in Texas. Several other states have also recently adopted or are considering legislation that would allow FECs to expand into the states and extend emergency services to underserved areas. This rapid growth has created an urgent need for EMR technology that meets the needs specific to FECs. To find out which EMR vendors are best helping FECs, KLAS spoke specifically to providers in Texas—the most mature FEC market—interviewing at least half of the EPOWERdoc, T System, CMR, and Wellsoft customers in the state.
Healthcare IT Investor Update:
2017 Q2
2017 Q2
IV Compounding 2017:
Assessing Vendor Offerings for IV Workflow Management and IV Robots
Assessing Vendor Offerings for IV Workflow Management and IV Robots
Telehealth Virtual Care Platforms 2017:
An Early Look at the State of Telehealth, A KLAS-CHIME Benchmarking Report
An Early Look at the State of Telehealth, A KLAS-CHIME Benchmarking Report
Payer Core Claims and Administration 2017:
The Future Suggests a Bumpy Road
The Future Suggests a Bumpy Road
Many health plans today are faced with rapidly changing regulations combined with middle-of-the-road performance from their core claims and administration vendors. Citing poor service and support, old technology, and nickel-and-diming, these health plans are looking for improved innovation and the ability to quickly adapt to industry changes.
Ultrasound 2017:
What Vendor Strengths Help Providers Succeed?
What Vendor Strengths Help Providers Succeed?
As the ultrasound imaging market continues to expand, so do expectations for innovative technology focused on improving efficiency and usability. With several strong ultrasound imaging options available, providers wonder what separates one vendor from another. Providers interviewed by KLAS felt vendors that consistently offered the newest innovations and effectively communicated were set apart from the rest. Additionally, respondents shared their future purchasing plans for ultrasound, with more plans geared toward point-of-care ultrasound.
Payer Quality Analytics 2017:
From Regulatory Reporting to Quality Improvement
From Regulatory Reporting to Quality Improvement
Health plans today look for proactive vendors who go beyond required quality reporting (i.e., HEDIS) to help close care gaps and improve quality. KLAS interviewed 57 payers to see how they view their vendor(s) in this important quest.
Vendor Selection 2017:
Crucial Factors to Consider When Choosing a Consulting Firm
Crucial Factors to Consider When Choosing a Consulting Firm
Market changes—namely, Cerner’s acquisition of Siemens’ healthcare IT, the sunsetting of McKesson Horizon, the release of MEDITECH 6.0, and the continued record-breaking pace of healthcare mergers and acquisitions—have caused many providers to reevaluate their EMR options. At the same time, increasing numbers of health systems are looking to technology to enhance population health efforts, resulting in more IT decisions regarding population health, business intelligence, and telehealth. Providers have many excellent options to choose from when looking for a consulting firm to help with these high-stakes vendor selections, but considering the following four factors can help them find a firm that will be an advocate for clients’ best interests.
Revenue Cycle Services 2017:
How Do RCS Firms Measure Up to Providers’ Needs?
How Do RCS Firms Measure Up to Providers’ Needs?
Healthcare revenue cycle is complex: compensation for care can come from any of several different payers, and policies are constantly changing. When providers decide to place the care of their financial stream in the hands of a revenue cycle services (RCS) firm, they need that firm to be, first and foremost, adept at delivering on key indicators. Providers also need their RCS firms to fit seamlessly into their culture, whether they are engaged long term or short term, for the complete business office (RCO) or for individual parts of the revenue cycle (EBOS).
340B Split Billing 2017:
Who Can Help Providers Adapt to a Changing Market?
Who Can Help Providers Adapt to a Changing Market?
As the 340B market continues to grow and change to meet federal regulations, providers report varying degrees of success with the vendors they use to help them adapt. Providers need vendors that consistently prepare them for and support them through these changes, such as the increasing number of HRSA audits. Which vendors are supporting and guiding providers through the audits? And who offers the strongest tools for 340B setup and reporting? KLAS spoke with 116 340B hospitals to find out how effectively their vendors deliver audit training and guidance as well as split-billing tools.
Cybersecurity 2017:
Healthcare Provider Security Assessment, A KLAS-CHIME Benchmarking Report
Healthcare Provider Security Assessment, A KLAS-CHIME Benchmarking Report
Security in healthcare has never been more critical. As payment and delivery reforms propel the industry toward greater connectivity and information exchange, new vulnerabilities arise. Cybercriminals are continually finding new and more sophisticated ways to attack networks and are searching for even the smallest crack. In an effort to benchmark the current state of security preparedness across the healthcare industry, KLAS and the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) embarked on a study to assess best practices and gain insights on healthcare organizations’ current security programs.
Advanced Visualization 2017:
Comprehensive Options Exist in an Unconsolidated World
Comprehensive Options Exist in an Unconsolidated World
Though many providers have been able to reduce the number of advanced visualization (AV) vendors in use within their organizations, consolidation onto one platform for all applications is not yet a reality. Providers keep multiple systems in order to meet differing physician preferences and retain specialized functionality while also taking advantage of some of the more automated AV software included in their PACS and imaging equipment purchases. In this report, KLAS targeted providers who have a server-based, enterprise-wide approach to AV to discover whether viable consolidation options exist, who providers consider as they expand their use of AV, and the factors in addition to functionality—such as training and server experience—that affect provider success.
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Imaging Modality Purchasing Trends 2017 (Smaller Organizations):
Small Market Remains Wide Open
Small Market Remains Wide Open
KLAS spoke to 74 smaller healthcare organizations (hospitals under 500 beds and imaging centers) to find out which vendors’ technologies they plan to expand and which will be used less frequently or abandoned. Vendor-exclusive contracts are less prevalent in smaller organizations, who are more inclined than larger facilities to choose a product based on functionality and relationship. Though smaller organizations are willing to entertain a wide variety of vendors, different vendors do dominate the various modalities, and the vendors’ predicted growth rates vary greatly.
Healthcare IT Investor Update:
2017 Q1
2017 Q1
Cerner Patient Accounting & Practice Management 2016:
Can My Organization Be Successful?
Can My Organization Be Successful?
More than one in three organizations looking to change their inpatient revenue cycle solution are leaning toward Cerner Patient Accounting. The desire to move to an integrated revenue cycle solution is strong, but so is apprehension since frustration among current Cerner customers is common. Feedback ranges from significant improvements in organizational outcomes that have “saved” organizations’ financials to missed timelines, missed revenue targets, organizational embarrassment, or even replacement of the full Cerner suite. How likely is it that your organization will be successful?
Global Population Health Perception 2016:
An Early Look at Trends, Technology, and Initiatives Outside the US
An Early Look at Trends, Technology, and Initiatives Outside the US
Global interest in population health is growing, becoming top of mind for more than just forward-thinking hospital organizations. However, what population health means and how it is addressed varies, from Asia and Oceania, Europe, and Northern America, where population health is maturing, to the Middle East, where a vision is just taking shape, to Latin America, where few healthcare groups have a vision. This report takes an early look at emerging population health trends and initiatives outside the US, as well as the underlying technology identified as key to these strategies—HIE and population health management systems. For additional insight, US performance data, where available, has been included on vendors of international interest.
Anesthesia Performance 2016:
A Clinician Take on Anesthesia Information Management Systems
A Clinician Take on Anesthesia Information Management Systems
In order to deliver the best care possible to the patient, clinicians and departmental personnel need the best systems that provide strong functionality, nimble workflows, and exceptional vendor support. Anesthesia solutions exist from both enterprise and best-of-breed vendors with some stark differences between them. Which vendors are best meeting the needs of the OR department and clinicians, and which vendors are committed to provider success in anesthesia? KLAS spoke to clinicians and OR personnel to find out.
Healthcare Management Consulting 2016:
(Mostly) Great Options for Tackling Healthcare's Biggest Challenges
(Mostly) Great Options for Tackling Healthcare's Biggest Challenges
Healthcare organizations are turning to management consultants for help with the flood of change currently disrupting the US healthcare market. In these high-stakes engagements, healthcare organizations, and therefore the firms they rely on, can’t afford to fail. Luckily, many excellent choices exist among both the more traditional, cross-industry management consulting firms and those that are more healthcare specific. Interviews with 276 provider and payer executives highlight how these firms are meeting customers’ high expectations as well as which firms don’t quite measure up.
Alarm Management 2016:
Which Vendors Are Best Positioned to Help Reduce Notification Fatigue?
Which Vendors Are Best Positioned to Help Reduce Notification Fatigue?
Despite having allocated resources to reduce notification fatigue, nearly half of providers interviewed for this study feel that they are still in the early stages of progressing toward the National Patient Safety Goals (NPSGs) from The Joint Commission. As vendors’ efforts to reduce alarm fatigue are in their infancy, this study looks at which alarm management middleware vendors are helping providers put in a solid foundation to reduce notification fatigue through innovative routing and escalation, reporting, and guidance.
Keystone Summit 2016:
Population Health IT Definition
Population Health IT Definition
The objective of the Keystone Summit on population health was to define core competencies of a provider population health IT solution and recognize the vendors that have developed and widely implemented these solutions. This framework was developed to differentiate current technologies, with an expectation that it will need to evolve in parallel with the evolution of the population health IT market.
CDS 2016:
Providers Expect EMRs to Drive CDS Impact
Providers Expect EMRs to Drive CDS Impact
KLAS intended this research to measure the outcomes being achieved with third-party CDS applications. However, many providers struggled to quantify their solution’s impact—a telling trend. As a result, this report highlights other insights gleaned from KLAS’ interviews regarding providers’ CDS solutions. Today, providers consider ease of adoption and clinical-reference quality when purchasing a system. What does the future hold for CDS? What role will EMRs play, and which third-party applications do providers report having success with?
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Claims and Clearinghouse 2016 (Large Organizations):
Who Delivers the Guidance and Tools Providers Need?
Who Delivers the Guidance and Tools Providers Need?
The shift to value-based care is placing increased pressure on clearinghouse vendors to deliver enhanced tools and improved guidance for their customers. Good clearinghouse options abound, but providers still need to select the tools, technology, and relationship that best fit their organizational culture, preferences, and goals. Which vendors are providing large practices (>20 physicians) with new and useful technology for value-based reimbursements, and what lessons can these practices share with their peers?
2016 Best in KLAS Awards:
Medical Equipment
Medical Equipment
Reflecting the provider voice, this report ranks the best-performing imaging and pharmacy automation equipment covering more than 50 products, including pharmacy automation, CT, MR, ultrasound, among others. The research enables providers to make more-informed technology decisions and helps vendors strive for excellence. Download the report to find out how well your vendors and prospective vendors perform, which vendors keep their promises best, and which offerings best meet customer expectations. Want to see how your healthcare IT vendors perform? Download the July 2016 Mid-Term Performance Review: Software & Services.
Healthcare Consulting 2016:
Who Can Help with Current and Future Needs?
Who Can Help with Current and Future Needs?
Healthcare organizations most often achieve desired consulting outcomes when third-party firms are proficient, collaborative, trustworthy, strategic, and efficient. And engagements most often flounder when firms are the opposite: salesy, incompetent, inflexible, overpromising, and non-strategic. With feedback gathered from 176 providers, this report will reveal which firms are perceived as most often demonstrating these attributes, as well as which are perceived as best positioned to meet emerging consulting needs.
Care Management 2016:
Changing Market, Changing Needs
Changing Market, Changing Needs
Amid industry changes to reimbursement and care models, health plans are switching their sights from traditional utilization/cost management to member-centric care management and even wellness. Vendor software solutions for care management are plentiful, but are they keeping up with changing client needs? KLAS spoke with 74 health plans to find out.
Portable X-Ray 2016:
New Provider Preferences Reshaping the Market
New Provider Preferences Reshaping the Market
Technological improvements among portable x-ray solutions are having a significant impact on the quality of patient care and how efficiently healthcare organizations administer studies. While all vendors contribute positively to patient care and organizational efficiency, providers feel that some vendors do this more effectively than others. The best fit for an organization depends on provider expectations, which can vary greatly. KLAS spoke with customers who have purchased at least one portable x-ray unit in the last two years to explore why vendors are or are not selected, how often vendors are being considered, and the strengths and weaknesses of portable x-ray machines.
Healthcare CRM 2016:
Wide Variation in Provider Goals and Vendor Performance
Wide Variation in Provider Goals and Vendor Performance
The opportunity for customer relationship management (CRM) to have a meaningful impact in healthcare is growing. However, managing relationships with current and prospective patients and physicians often requires new workflows and access to consumer data not typically tracked in healthcare today. Even as this nascent market is still being defined, many vendors claim to help in a myriad of ways. This report will explain which of the most common niches vendors are being used in as well as help providers understand their peers’ current overall satisfaction with vendors’ technology and service.
Scheduling 2016 - Staff, Nurse, and Physician:
Are Vendors Delivering Promised Technology?
Are Vendors Delivering Promised Technology?
New staff and nurse scheduling technologies, like predictive scheduling, mobile tools, self-scheduling, and acuity tools, promise to help healthcare providers improve staffing efficiency. This report explores how deeply new technologies are being adopted and how well they perform and takes a first look at physician scheduling options.
Optimization Services 2016:
Driving Outcomes from Implementation to Performance Improvement
Driving Outcomes from Implementation to Performance Improvement
As the first wave of HIT system implementations ends, providers who find that their systems are not delivering maximum value often turn to consulting firms to optimize these systems through process, workflow, and application improvement. This report discusses which firms are making the biggest impact, how well the firms enhance workflows and applications, and what types of optimization services they offer.
Healthcare IT Investor Update:
2016 Q4
2016 Q4
2016 Midterm Performance Review:
Software & Services
Software & Services
The 2016 Mid-term Performance Review: Software & Services report provides a summary of the KLAS performance ratings gathered over the past 12 months (18 months for select services) for healthcare IT software and services vendors/firms in 104 market segments. All vendor products are listed with performance scores that have been compiled from the feedback of thousands of healthcare providers at physician offices, clinics, hospitals, and IDNs throughout the United States and Canada. The following is an overview of some of the noteworthy insights and changes since the publication of the 2015 report.
Core Payer Platforms 2016:
New Payvider Market Meets Old Technology
New Payvider Market Meets Old Technology
New market demands are pushing health systems to take on more risk, resulting in some starting their own health plans. These provider-owned health plans (“payviders”) and other full-risk-bearing organizations like them rely on vendor solutions for core payer functions, yet many of the platforms are decades old. How well do these solutions perform, and will new entrants shake up this reemerging market?
Population Health Perception 2016:
Vendors Find their Place in Providers' Plans
Vendors Find their Place in Providers' Plans
In the three years KLAS has reported on population health management (PHM) solutions, we have described a fragmented market, with scores of vendors from many different backgrounds. EMR vendors continue to dominate, but best-of-breed players are staying competitive with niche capabilities and robust functionality. The discussion now turns to which solutions have staying power and which are on track to be replaced. In this report, 165 providers describe the role of their PHM vendors and identify which they feel are poised to lead the vendor field.
Best in KLAS Imaging Modalities Insights
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Imaging Modality Trends (Large Organizations):
Significant Changes On The Horizon
Significant Changes On The Horizon
Imaging centers are becoming less of the standalone profit centers they once were, and technology and support have become driving factors in large organizations’ plans to expand or decrease what they purchase from imaging vendors. Traditionally, the imaging market has been dominated by Siemens and GE Healthcare, with Philips and Toshiba bringing up the rear. Now, Siemens has begun to pull away, and Toshiba has lost momentum. Smaller niche vendors like Hologic and Carestream are filling the gaps in mammography and x-ray, but other small vendors have yet to make a sizable imprint. KLAS spoke to some of the largest providers in the US to find out which vendors are most trusted for future purchases.
Healthcare Price Transparency Solutions 2016:
An Early Look
An Early Look
Healthcare costs are soaring. Insurance premiums keep rising. And for most consumers, healthcare costs are anything but transparent—when the “mystery” bill finally arrives, many are shocked at what they have to pay. This first-time KLAS report takes a very preliminary look at vendor solutions used in the price transparency market and highlights client experiences among payers, employers, and providers.
Tomosynthesis 2016:
Can GE and Siemens Compete with Hologic?
Can GE and Siemens Compete with Hologic?
Since first releasing tomosynthesis in 2011, Hologic has dominated the 3D mammography market and until recently has had no competition in the U.S. Despite significant imaging-equipment footprints, Siemens and GE were slow to release tomosynthesis, receiving FDA approval in 2014 and 2015, respectively. While providers using all of these systems are highly satisfied and feel the technology is worth the investment, users point to key differences among vendors in regard to implementation, development, and relationships that they feel others should know about before selecting a tomosynthesis solution.
Patient Outreach 2016:
Driving Outcomes – From No-Shows to Better Health
Driving Outcomes – From No-Shows to Better Health
The success of the value-based care model that healthcare is moving toward hinges on providers’ ability to engage the patients in their care. Many patient outreach vendors claim to help providers in this endeavor, but not all solutions are created equal. Providers are asking which solutions offer various outreach functionalities, which are driving the best outcomes, which vendors best help providers leverage their solutions, and what value EMR vendors bring to the table.
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HIT Purchasing Trends 2016 (U.S.):
The Shift From Foundational to Transformational IT
The Shift From Foundational to Transformational IT
Both providers and vendors have shifted the public HIT discussion to transformational solutions—population health, BI/analytics, patient engagement, HIE/interoperability, and telehealth. But the reality is that a significant portion of providers’ money and energy is still devoted to shoring up their foundational IT solutions—acute/ambulatory EMR and revenue cycle. While their current EMR is not the only factor affecting providers’ purchasing, there is a strong correlation between providers’ foundational IT integration and their ability to focus on transformational technologies.
Value-Based Care Timing 2016:
The Transition from Fee-For-Service
The Transition from Fee-For-Service
It’s been five years since Medicare kicked off an industry-wide transition from fee-for-service reimbursement to a system that rewards quality rather than quantity. Commercial payers are following suit, and providers expect participation is inevitable. Some providers are adopting value-based care (VBC) initiatives in an attempt to remain competitive, while HIT vendors are counting on VBC as a revenue stream. Based on 173 provider interviews, this report examines the progress of VBC and which HIT vendors and solutions are making a difference.
Natural Language Processing:
Glimpses Into the Future of Unstructured Data Mining
Glimpses Into the Future of Unstructured Data Mining
In many ways, the current healthcare climate has created the perfect storm for a surge in provider mindshare toward leveraging NLP to help improve patient care. However, providers currently face challenges evaluating the different NLP offerings and how they will perform in specific contexts. Additionally, providers note that current NLP solutions face significant challenges in unraveling the complexities of medical language. KLAS spoke with academic facilities, large IDNs, and known NLP users to provide an overview of the NLP market, provider strategies, and NLP use cases and a very early look at what vendors are offering in NLP solutions.
Epic Consulting 2016:
Which Firms Provide Breadth, Depth, and Expertise?
Which Firms Provide Breadth, Depth, and Expertise?
This competitive marketplace includes many firms utilizing Epic-certified consultants to ensure client success. Firm breadth, depth, expertise, and scalability differentiate exceptional performance to help providers find the best fit. Six firms stand out with broad service offerings in at least three areas, complemented by deep experience drawn from completing many engagements. Other firms offer more focused services and/or have less experience in fewer engagements.
Ambulatory Specialty 2016:
One Size Does Not Fit All
One Size Does Not Fit All
Specialty-specific EMRs continue to provide the best content for individual specialties, with PCC (pediatrics) and Modernizing Medicine (dermatology) setting the standard for their specialties. Most broad-focus vendors are meeting needs in family/internal medicine, but how do they perform across other specialties? And which vendors are best suited to the unique needs of smaller, independent practices and specialties? To answer these questions and help providers find the best fit for their specialty mix, KLAS interviewed over 700 healthcare professionals.
Outpatient Pharmacy 2016:
Who Is Meeting Today's Demands?
Who Is Meeting Today's Demands?
In response to healthcare and payment reform, providers are turning to the outpatient pharmacy to cut costs and improve outcomes. In a space where development has traditionally been slow, providers are tasked with finding a vendor partner that can meet population health and value-based care challenges. To help providers determine which vendors best meet their needs, this report addresses key provider questions: which vendors are making strategic product improvements, which solutions can scale, which vendors foster strong relationships with customers, and what are the strengths and weaknesses of outpatient pharmacy systems today?
Imaging IT Landscape 2016:
Enterprise Platform
Enterprise Platform
As provider organizations expand their patient responsibility and make strategic purchases to meet the needs of an evolving healthcare landscape, imaging IT stands out as an area for consolidation and growth. Providers are faced with the challenge of working more collaboratively with disparate products across a variety of segments. To help providers quickly determine which vendors best meet their needs, KLAS examined the breadth of current offerings and the consistency of vendor delivery across the portfolio.
Pharmacy 2016:
Are You Partnered to Reduce Costs?
Are You Partnered to Reduce Costs?
Healthcare reform and decreasing reimbursements are restructuring hospital budgets around the country, and more than ever, hospital executives are looking for ways to reduce pharmacy costs by boosting staff productivity and decreasing medication spending. KLAS interviewed 55 hospital C-levels and 124 pharmacy directors about initiatives they are implementing to position themselves for value-based care and about which vendors they are partnering with in the various segments that make up the pharmacy automation and inventory ecosystem.
HIE 2016:
Shifts in Vendor Performance and Provider Outlook
Shifts in Vendor Performance and Provider Outlook
Health information exchange (HIE) was one of the first answers to the challenge of interoperability. Despite a rousing start and years to mature, HIE has largely been a story of missed expectations. More than half of the vendors KLAS reported on in 2011 are no longer competing in the market, including several industry stalwarts. While at least one prominent vendor has pulled out of a tailspin, others are struggling in new ways. Which vendors are most stable? Which are being counted on for the future and why? KLAS spoke with 332 organizations to understand vendors’ past performance and providers’ outlook for the future.
Ambulatory EMR Purchasing:
Enterprise-Wide Considerations Reshaping Market
Enterprise-Wide Considerations Reshaping Market
The drivers for EMR purchasing decisions vary by provider environment, but accountable care, population health, and interoperability top most lists. Even organizations that remain independent are influenced by these drivers, a trend that has sharply decreased provider interest in the market’s traditional players. This report examines which vendors ambulatory organizations of all sizes are considering and why.
2016 Acute EMR Buying Decisions:
EMR Replacements Heating Up
EMR Replacements Heating Up
Vendor and product consolidations continue to reshape the face of the acute care EMR market as the number of hospitals running legacy, or limited life, systems increases. A number of health systems are considering a change, and most say Epic or Cerner is their likely acute care EMR replacement. MEDITECH continues to fight hard to retain their legacy customers, while other vendors get little consideration overall. What does this mean for providers and vendors alike? KLAS spoke to over 800 organizations to find out.
Cerner/Siemens Acquisition:
Soarian Migration in High Gear
Soarian Migration in High Gear
Cerner’s acquisition of Siemens touches the foundational HIT systems of hundreds of provider organizations and has Soarian customers on an accelerated path to an EMR change. Patient accounting customers are hoping the vendors’ historically weak financial systems will become stronger together. This report examines how providers in the United States are responding to the way Cerner has managed the needs of this blended customer base over the first year.
Ambulatory PM Performance:
Best PM Vendors For Providers' Coming Needs
Best PM Vendors For Providers' Coming Needs
Payment reform is drastically changing how providers think about healthcare delivery and reimbursement. Providers are relying heavily on their practice management (PM) solutions to aid them throughout this transition. KLAS spoke to 963 providers to understand which vendors are best leading their small, midsize, and large customers to long-term success.
Enterprise Healthcare BI:
The Search for Outcomes
The Search for Outcomes
In healthcare, BI isn’t just about BI anymore. A BI platform’s capability and horsepower—traditional hallmarks of large and established BI vendors—are only as good as the insights and outcomes they help create. This report differentiates 11 enterprise BI vendors based on client reviews in performance, insights, and outcomes.
Global HIT Trends 2015:
Which Vendors Are Providers Betting On?
Which Vendors Are Providers Betting On?
Providers globally are focused on adopting and upgrading EMR solutions at a higher rate than ever before. Those tasked with making the choice want to know which vendors are considered in their region and what sets those vendors apart. KLAS interviewed key decision makers at 111 organizations around the globe to understand their buying plans. Of these organizations, 46 plan to replace or acquire a new EMR. Additionally, providers shared their purchasing plans for other technologies, such as imaging, analytics, and enterprise content management solutions.
Labor and Delivery 2015:
A Deep Look at Integration and Functionality
A Deep Look at Integration and Functionality
Providers planning to purchase a new L&D documentation system are looking for meaningful connectivity with core clinical systems without sacrificing robust functionality. KLAS interviewed providers to discover which vendors provide the strongest connectivity and which provide the documentation functionality that best meets providers’ needs.
The Emerging Payvider Market:
Which Vendors Matter Most?
Which Vendors Matter Most?
Provider-owned health plans (payviders) aren’t new, but the payvider market, now permeated with ACOs and new risk-sharing arrangements, is seeing new life and seeking new direction. Which vendors are seen as most critical? Which vendors would clients avoid or replace? KLAS spoke with 44 organizations (health plans), representing more than one-third of the payvider market, to find out.
Epic's Global Performance:
An Early Look at Customers Outside the U.S.
An Early Look at Customers Outside the U.S.
Provider interest in Epic continues to increase in many regions of the world. Notwithstanding Epic’s large, proven install base in the U.S., many providers wonder whether Epic’s U.S. success can translate globally and whether it is worth the higher price. KLAS spoke with all seven organizations live with (and nearly all those implementing) EpicCare Inpatient EMR outside the U.S. KLAS primarily interviewed healthcare executives and directors to answer providers’ questions about the Epic customer experience (from implementation until post– go-live), budget accuracy, and depth of adoption.º ºKLAS interviewed multiple individuals in areas with significant press coverage. This report focuses on the experiences of those interviewed rather than on third-party reports.
Is it Time to Reevaluate My Lab Strategy?:
Laboratory Vendor Market Update 2015
Laboratory Vendor Market Update 2015
In mature HIT markets, radical innovation and clever marketing hold little sway. That means the battle between best-of-breed vendors (who want to hold on to customers) and enterprise vendors (who want to encourage migration) depends on the strength of the individual players. The determining factors can be evaluated in three key dimensions: product, service, and value. This report highlights vendor strengths and weaknesses and also explores the maturity of Epic Beaker in the laboratory market.
Women's Imaging 2015:
Are New Technologies Delivering Promised Benefits?
Are New Technologies Delivering Promised Benefits?
New technologies in women’s imaging promise to deliver better patient care and save providers time, but are these benefits truly being realized? How do the old and new technologies compare? Provider interviews shed light on vendor performance, what technologies providers feel are worth the investment, and where the market will be heading over the next two years.
athenahealth vs. eClinicalWorks:
Which Suite Best Meets Your Independent Practice's Needs?
Which Suite Best Meets Your Independent Practice's Needs?
The ambulatory EMR market continues to be turbulent. With practice consolidations and usability worries top of mind, many providers are reanalyzing their go-forward EMR strategies. Among independent physician practices, athenahealth and eClinicalWorks are currently the primary EMRs being considered. This report compares the strengths and weaknesses of these two leaders in the independent-practice market.
MEDITECH Consulting:
Which Firms Are Ready to Support Providers' Varied Consulting Needs?
Which Firms Are Ready to Support Providers' Varied Consulting Needs?
MEDITECH has 19% of the overall EMR market share in the U.S.+ With three different platforms live, they have a large client base with great and varied consulting needs, from legacy support to implementation services. Last year, MEDITECH created the READY certification program to verify consultants’ knowledge of MEDITECH applications. This study explores clients’ experiences with 16 firms and 128 MEDITECH implementation and advisory projects. Which READY-certified firms excel in offering general and specific services to support MEDITECH clients on MAGIC, C/S, and 6.x?
IT Outsourcing 2015:
Strategic Partnering Boosts Operational Benefits
Strategic Partnering Boosts Operational Benefits
As providers adapt to changing reimbursement requirements and new models of care, many who outsource part or all of their IT environments are able to focus on and in some cases boost their performance in key operational areas such as gaining efficiencies, improving patient care, and reducing costs. In this age of new healthcare delivery, which firms stand out in providing strategic direction and needed IT services in extensive and partial outsourcing environments?
How are Providers Managing Specialty Drugs?:
A KLAS Brief on the Specialty Pharmacy Market
A KLAS Brief on the Specialty Pharmacy Market
Today, there is no one-size-fits-all solution for tracking and documenting the various aspects of specialty drug administration and adherence across the continuum of care. Over three-quarters of inpatient providers are already providing specialty services or planning to do so in the next two years, and with no comprehensive solution available, organizations must cobble together multiple systems to meet their specialty pharmacy needs. Which vendors/systems are providers leveraging? What types of organizations can benefit from a dedicated specialty pharmacy system? This summary gives a brief look at the current state of this emerging market.
HIM Services Performance 2015:
Coding, Transcription, Release of Information
Coding, Transcription, Release of Information
While the HIM environment is changing, provider expectations of quality from HIM services firms are not. Many providers contract with multiple coding firms in anticipation of ICD-10 coder shortages, and in spite of front-end speech and EMR documentation technology benefits, many providers still need transcription services. Across the board, coding, transcription, and release of information customers are quick to move away from firms not meeting metrics. This report measures how firms in each of these categories meet client expectations and which are best at delivering quality resources and consistent service.
Implementation Potholes 2015:
How to Smooth Out the Ride
How to Smooth Out the Ride
As nearly 1,300 U.S. hospitals consider a move to new core clinical and financial systems in the coming years, this report focuses on the common implementation potholes of specific vendors, best practices for success, and insights on the consultants who can help.
Are All Dose Monitoring Solutions Created Equal? Early Trends in an Emerging Market
Early adopters of dose monitoring solutions have found that the tools make a difference in quality improvement, protocol optimization, and patient safety. While this emerging market is still in the early stages—most vendors outside of Bayer have a small install base—KLAS data includes early indicators that vendors differ in their ability to help in those three areas.
Integration Engines 2015:
Corepoint Outperforms All BIK Winners
Corepoint Outperforms All BIK Winners
Corepoint and InterSystems lead a high-performing market, where integration engine configuration needs vary widely. While most vendors meet the broad requirements, Corepoint and Cerner (Siemens) are favored by users who are reliant on drag-and-drop functionality (i.e., wizards). Infor, InterSystems, and Orion are preferred by organizations needing a broader suite of development tools. In this study, integration engine vendor performance is measured beyond basic functionality to include automation-tool strength, scalability breadth, and factors such as customer support that drive client satisfaction.
Getting More Value & Avoiding Surprises:
A Detailed Look at Imaging Vendor Performance
A Detailed Look at Imaging Vendor Performance
Providers make big imaging investments in order to establish a strong fleet of imaging modalities, and they want to know which vendors offer the greatest value—which they define as reliable technology at a fair price backed by excellent support and effective relationships. KLAS interviewed 569 providers to find out which vendors provide the most value and to uncover any potential unwelcome surprises to avoid.
Patient Portals 2015:
Who’s Driving Meaningful Patient Interaction?
Who’s Driving Meaningful Patient Interaction?
Today’s meaningful use requirement of patient portal access by 5% of patients is confirmed to be a fairly low bar, but a more challenging future is just beginning. Value-based care is forcing patient portals to evolve from being tools for reactive compliance to instruments that allow patients to proactively engage in their care. This report analyzes three flavors of portals (enterprise, ambulatory, and agnostic) and shows which vendors have proven to best meet current needs while also developing solutions for a more strategic tomorrow.
Revenue Cycle Services 2015:
Can Firms Help Providers Adapt to the Changing Revenue Cycle Environment?
Can Firms Help Providers Adapt to the Changing Revenue Cycle Environment?
The current revenue cycle environment is defined by change, whether it be the industry shift to value-based care, providers changing their RCM software solutions, or organizational operations being improved in order to increase efficiency and decrease cost. In this study, providers evaluate how well their firms help them improve collections (cash, A/R); streamline processes; decrease costs; and most importantly, evolve into a future state.
Healthcare BI:
Moving Towards the Continuum of Care
Moving Towards the Continuum of Care
While vendor products and options in the health analytics market are broad, a few key trends stand out to healthcare providers: a gap of healthcare expertise among BI vendors, increased complexity of data aggregation, and a heightened call for analytics solutions for the continuum of care (COC). This report highlights providers’ perceptions/consideration of vendors seen as capable in these areas.
dbMotion 2015:
A Reality Check
A Reality Check
Allscripts’ dbMotion software tackles two of the biggest challenges faced by providers today: health information exchange (HIE) and population health management (PHM). Allscripts states that dbMotion is core to their long-term strategy. Amidst high energy and high expectations, KLAS spoke with nearly half of the customers live on dbMotion to find out what is real today and what is likely ahead.
Global EMR Trends:
Which EMR Should You Choose?
Which EMR Should You Choose?
KLAS has been measuring health information technology outside the United States for the past four years, focusing primarily on core clinical and administration systems (EMR/PAS) as well as on PACS. KLAS focuses on three types of research: market share (vendor contracts), mindshare (who providers are considering for purchase), and vendor performance (customer satisfaction). Take a look below at the most important global learnings KLAS uncovered in 2014.
HIM Purchasing Plans 2015:
Which Solutions are Considered for the Future?
Which Solutions are Considered for the Future?
HIM efficiency is at the forefront of providers’ minds, with many consolidating processes into fewer vendors’ systems, streamlining technology, and incorporating core vendor solutions when available. For this report, KLAS focused on speaking with HIM directors from organizations with 200+ beds to understand which HIM solutions are currently being used and considered for the near future.
ICD-10 Preparation:
Which Firm Has the Most Implementation Expertise?
Which Firm Has the Most Implementation Expertise?
Clinical documentation improvement (CDI) software and services, computer assisted coding (CAC), dual coding, and expertise provided by ICD-10 implementation firms are pillars in many providers’ ICD-10 preparation road maps. This report highlights which vendors/firms are helping providers achieve the greatest success in each area.
10 Trends of 2014 You May Have Missed
No, I’m not talking about wearable tech, the ice bucket challenge, or Radiant Orchid (PANTONE’s 2014 color of the year). The trends that busy healthcare CIOs like you value most are the ones that will impact how you are able to do your job. And having spent the last year conducting over 18,000 interviews with healthcare providers and leaders just like you, KLAS is in a unique position to identify those trends.
2014 Midterm Performance Review:
Medical Equipment and Infrastructure
Medical Equipment and Infrastructure
The "2014 Mid-Term Performance Review: Medical Equipment & Infrastructure" report profiles medical equipment, imaging, and infrastructure vendors, providing a detailed look at the performance of each company's product line for the past 12 months.
Ambulatory EMR 2015:
Key Findings From the Past 16 Months
Key Findings From the Past 16 Months
A lot is happening in the ambulatory EMR market. This report highlights five of the most important findings from KLAS Research in 2014.
IV Robots & Workflow Management 2014:
Is It Time to Adopt?
Is It Time to Adopt?
Providers continue to see manual compounding of IV solutions as the area of the medication preparation process most vulnerable to errors. Despite the risk for compounding errors, the early adoption of IV robots and use of workflow solutions has not kept pace with the threat because of cost concerns and competing priorities. Provider interest is still high, and many wonder when, if not now, is the right time to adopt.
ACO Payers 2014:
Le Tour de Risk
Le Tour de Risk
Providers are moving steadily down the path of value-based care, but they vary in their readiness to take on more risk. Fortunately, commercial payers offer a range of “rides” that fit providers’ different needs, from comfortable transitions to trail-breaking endeavors. Based on conversations with 23 providers about 43 risk sharing agreements, this study examines the roles that five top national payers are playing in helping providers progress in the new world of accountability.
Cerner/Siemens Acquisition 2014:
A Side-By-Side Look at the Data
A Side-By-Side Look at the Data
Hundreds of providers across the globe are impacted by Cerner’s recent acquisition of Siemens. Many decisions are yet to be made on how Cerner will leverage the two companies’ offerings going forward. This report puts the data side by side as both providers and Cerner make strategic decisions about what the future holds.
Epic Consulting 2014:
The Bumper Crop of Epic Consulting Firms
The Bumper Crop of Epic Consulting Firms
In the past two years, Epic has won 92 hospitals with over 200 beds. This market growth has led to a bumper crop of Epic consulting firms. The number of Epic consulting firms since the last KLAS Epic services study has grown from 13 to 21 fully rated firms, with another 12 firms appearing with preliminary data. Most of these firms are high performing. This study measures Epic consulting engagements from the last 18 months to show how they stack up and to assist provider organizations in selecting the firm right for them.
Radiation Therapy 2014:
The Fight Against Cancer Is Heating Up
The Fight Against Cancer Is Heating Up
The fight against cancer continues to be one of the fiercest in healthcare today. The battle to enable providers to be successful in that fight is gaining in intensity too. Varian has long been the market share leader, with the CyberKnife and TomoTherapy units delivering distinct options. Previously ignored by Varian and Accuray, Elekta has been strong recently, adding the Versa HD to their portfolio with strong, provider-centric support. The established vendors now recognize they are in a fight. And another fight is brewing in treatment planning: while Elekta, Philips, and Varian are striving to deliver a complete enterprise solution, newcomer RaySearch is stepping into the ring. Can Elekta continue to raise the bar? What is Varian doing to combat them? Will Philips and Accuray find an edge? KLAS spoke with 101 oncology providers to find out.
DR Mobile 2014:
Loyalty Tested
Loyalty Tested
Niche x-ray vendors, led by Shimadzu, are dominating the mobile x-ray space. Enterprise vendors are working to deliver a more robust portable solution that will either deter enterprise customers from changing or regain customers who have changed. Providers are looking to vendors for improved patient care, particularly in pediatrics, and an improved workflow. Who is vying with Shimadzu to take their place as leader in this space? Is GE gaining back any of the dominance they had in the heydays of the AMX 4s? Which vendors are delivering new tools and innovations? This report looks at the current state of the mobile x-ray market based on the opinions of 184 providers.
Human Capital Management 2014:
Just Efficient Is Not Sufficient
Just Efficient Is Not Sufficient
Human capital management (HCM) is all about employing and managing a workforce and is the number-one cost for healthcare providers. This report differentiates vendors based on the products they offer, how well they deliver efficiency, & more.
InterSystems Global 2014:
An Early Look at TrakCare around the World
An Early Look at TrakCare around the World
InterSystems TrakCare was highlighted as the fastest-growing EMR solution outside the United States in the recently published Global EMR Market Share report from KLAS. Offering a number of modules for a lower price, the product is an attractive solution for providers. Why are so many providers selecting TrakCare? How does the product perform, and are customers getting their money’s worth? KLAS spoke to TrakCare customers worldwide to find out. This data provides an early look at the product in three global regions.
Image Exchange 2014:
Delivering Added Value in an Enterprise World
Delivering Added Value in an Enterprise World
As provider organizations look to implement enterprise imaging strategies, the demand for better image exchange tools and sharing capabilities is growing. Healthcare organizations want to exchange images seamlessly and quickly across disparate platforms, organizations, and users. Image exchange vendors have successfully addressed these needs to a large extent. Which image exchange vendors are delivering added value and functionality? Which have earned high loyalty in this environment of consolidation and change? KLAS has spoken with 193 providers from 166 organizations to find out.
Clinical Market Share 2014:
Competition Mounts as Markets Collide
Competition Mounts as Markets Collide
In our first report combining EMR trends in both large (over 200 beds) and small (200 beds or less) hospitals, KLAS charts the speed and direction of the acute care market in 2013.
CV/IR X-Ray Product Comparison Report 2014
Digital X-Ray Product Comparison Report 2014
Digital Mammography Product Comparison Report 2014
MR 1.5 T Product Comparison Report 2014
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Computed Tomography (CT) - 64-Slice Product Comparison Report 2014
Cardiovascular Ultrasound Product Comparison Report 2014
Long-Term Care 2014:
Which vendors deliver on the fundamentals?
Which vendors deliver on the fundamentals?
Long-term care (LTC) organizations are becoming more prominent in the care continuum. As the market evolves, long-term care providers need up-to-date, easy-to-use solutions that meet fundamental needs and adapt to market demands. Which vendors best meet providers’ basic needs for usability, functionality, and support? Which are best known for development? Which best meet the needs of larger and/or smaller organizations? KLAS interviewed 154 provider organizations to find out.
Epic HIE 2014:
Everywhere, Elsewhere, or Nowhere Else?
Everywhere, Elsewhere, or Nowhere Else?
Wide-ranging praise from customers has made Epic a top-ranked software vendor in many KLAS reports. One area, however, is often a subject of criticism: Epic’s ability to share clinical data outside of an Epic ecosystem. Among many customers and competitors, Epic has a reputation as a closed system that is unsuitable for the collaboration and interoperability seen as vital for patients and providers alike. The goal of this report is to test that reputation among organizations said to be sharing clinical data between Epic and non-Epic systems today, examine how that is being accomplished, and highlight the strengths and weaknesses of Epic’s approach. Via 28 provider interviews, we look through the eyes of both Epic customers and the non-Epic organizations with which they share patient information.
Outsourced Coding 2014:
Do You Have Enough Resources for the ICD-10 Transition?
Do You Have Enough Resources for the ICD-10 Transition?
With the ICD-10 deadline in clear view, the outsourced coding market has never been as exciting—or as noisy—as it is today. Facing coder shortages and productivity loss, many providers are looking to outsourced coding firms to address current and anticipated coding gaps. This report explores which coding firms providers are contracting with, how they compare in various quality measures, and what providers’ future plans are with these services.
CT 2014:
What Can You Do With Less?
What Can You Do With Less?
As providers consider their CT-fleet strategy, they are looking for the best value. They want to be able to purchase and utilize a second-tier scanner for most of their needs to maximize their imaging budget. Providers want to know how often these scanners are used for advanced procedures such as cardiac, pediatric, and stroke procedures, and how well they perform. Which vendors offer the best iterative reconstruction, and which vendors are winning new business? KLAS spoke with 101 providers from 87 organizations to find out.
Epic Enters the Community Space:
Collaboration Brings Synergies with Smaller Organizations
Collaboration Brings Synergies with Smaller Organizations
Until recently, Epic was largely an unattainable solution for the community hospital space. Over the past several years, independent community providers have been able to utilize full Epic capabilities (Epic Community Connect) via hosting partnerships with larger Epic clients. This report discusses how these community providers view the integration, affordability, and impact on patient care of this hosted offering.
Weathering Change:
Merge Healthcare Imaging Suite 2014
Merge Healthcare Imaging Suite 2014
A CEO change, a new chairman of the board, and the company’s temporary exploration of strategic options, including a potential sale of the company, have given Merge customers a reason to pause. But Merge has weathered these changing conditions well. With increasing energy around partnering with a strategic imaging vendor, providers want to know how good of a partner Merge is. How do key clients see their future with Merge? How confident are customers in Merge’s executives, current technology, and road map? How well does the Merge imaging suite integrate with hospital EMRs? KLAS spoke with 147 Merge customers to gather insight on how Merge is performing. In addition, 31 key clients were interviewed to answer these questions.
Homecare 2014:
Vendor Readiness to Meet New Demands
Vendor Readiness to Meet New Demands
Homecare technology is not new. But the demands that homecare technology faces today are. This report explores vendors’ abilities to meet the development, interoperability, and value needs of today’s homecare agencies—needs that are all highly important to organizations that are exploring accountable care and population health. Which vendors are currently best positioned to meet these new pressures?
Revenue Cycle Outsourcing 2013:
Tools, Expertise, and Resources Key to Improved Collections
Tools, Expertise, and Resources Key to Improved Collections
Providers are reaching out to revenue cycle outsourcing firms more than ever as their environments increase in complexity and the need for improved collections, greater efficiency, and accuracy grows. With some of the largest contracts signed in the past two years, the market has seen tremendous growth, resulting in over 38 organizations encompassing 460 total hospitals currently using revenue cycle outsourcing. For this report, KLAS spoke with 28 of these organizations to highlight the differences in each firm’s collection tools and strategies as well as to show strengths, weaknesses, and other differences between them.
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Ambulatory EMR (11-75 Physicians):
Can Any Vendor Set a High Standard?
Can Any Vendor Set a High Standard?
The introduction of meaningful use has significantly impacted the EMR landscape as vendors strive to stay ahead of federal regulation. Many vendors find themselves struggling to deliver in this new model, yet a handful have risen to the challenge. This report hopes to educate providers on the current EMR performance landscape in the midsize practices.
Clinical Decision Support 2013:
Sizing Up Point-of-Care Reference Tools
Sizing Up Point-of-Care Reference Tools
CDS reference tools play an important role in aiding caregivers by providing current information on diseases, drugs, and care plans. With a number of products on the market, which ones are being used most and why? How impactful are these tools, and how would care differ if they were gone?
EMR Technology Perception 2013:
Separating Fact From Fiction
Separating Fact From Fiction
With millions of dollars in electronic medical records (EMRs) at stake as a result of meaningful use, vendors have made underlying technology a key value proposition in recent sales pitches. This value goes well beyond scalability and uptime to cover how data architectures, system flexibility, and open standards can positively impact clinical quality. Marketing campaigns appear to make compelling arguments around technology, but what is proving true with providers? To provide clarity around the facts and fiction that surround EMR product technologies, KLAS interviewed 117 progressive organizations to determine what really matters and the impact technology is having on what they are able to do.
Teleradiology 2013:
Serving the Emergency Department
Serving the Emergency Department
As government regulations expand and reimbursements shrink, some radiology groups are considering bringing night and weekend reads back in-house, and a few have already made the leap. Hospitals looking to save some money are contracting directly with teleradiology firms. Providers are looking for teleradiology firms to demonstrate their value and offer excellent service. Which vendors can take care of ED needs best? Who has the best report quality and is most consistent with turnaround times? KLAS spoke with 213 providers to find out.
Image Exchange 2013:
A Close Look at Accelarad
A Close Look at Accelarad
As the necessity to easily exchange images between healthcare facilities has grown, the image exchange market has been heating up. Accelarad was the first to attack the problem of image exchange, and they are the top-ranked image exchange vendor. What can providers expect when working with Accelarad? What success and challenges have providers experienced?
Cerner Global 2013:
A Detailed Look Outside the United States
A Detailed Look Outside the United States
Providers around the globe are looking to vendors like Cerner that can provide a core EMR with a range of departmental solutions. This report on Cerner is the first in a series of studies highlighting providers’ experiences with EHR vendors outside the United States. With the intricacies that multinational companies face, how well does Cerner meet the needs of clients in different parts of the world? Are they a viable partner? Are they worth the effort and cost? To find answers to these questions, KLAS spoke with 35 provider organizations outside the United States.
McKesson Paragon 2013:
Balancing the Risk & the Reward
Balancing the Risk & the Reward
Since McKesson’s Better Health 2020 announcement, many large Horizon customers have wondered whether Paragon is a viable option for them. Can Paragon really scale to meet the needs of larger hospitals? What risk would hospitals be taking to get a more affordable price? What are their peers doing? To answer these questions, KLAS spoke with 44 Paragon organizations (16 over 200 beds, 28 under 200 beds).
Accenture U.S. Provider Consulting 2013:
An Analysis of Accenture's DNA
An Analysis of Accenture's DNA
Over the past several years KLAS has had little to share with providers about Accenture. While their number of engagements is fewer than some other firms’ in number, their projects tend to be large and in some cases unique due to the scope and type of work being performed. Accenture’s approach is to be a meaningful all-around partner to a limited number of clients. For this research KLAS interviewed senior executives from most of Accenture’s largest U.S. provider clients to obtain insights regarding their experience and the work performed.
PatientKeeper 2013:
A New Take on Inpatient CPOE
A New Take on Inpatient CPOE
PatientKeeper offers a CPOE overlay that is used in conjunction with an existing EMR. Is this a viable option for hospitals struggling to get CPOE adoption with their current EMR solution? KLAS spoke with all six organizations using PatientKeeper CPOE as of August 2013, getting perspectives from six IT professionals/decision makers and five physicians, to find out.
Image Archive 2013:
Finding Out What Is In Store For VNA
Finding Out What Is In Store For VNA
Image-storage needs are evolving from consolidating separate archives to supporting multiple formats, vendors, and platforms. Providers expect to see a positive ROI, scalability, and consistent development. Where can providers turn? Can their existing PACS vendor meet their needs? Or must they choose an archive-only solution? KLAS spoke with 150 providers to find out.
CDS Surveillance 2013:
Impacting Outcomes
Impacting Outcomes
As clinical outcomes are being readily tied to reimbursement, surveillance tools have continued to expand in breadth and depth of usage. KLAS defines surveillance as solutions that monitor patient parameters and call attention to pertinent changes in patient conditions in order to facilitate early interventions by clinicians. Many providers are using third-party products while others are opting to leverage their EMRs. KLAS interviewed over 140 providers using surveillance specific products or surveillance functionality within their EMR to better answer the following questions: How big of an impact is surveillance having today? How capable are these systems out of the box? How easy are they to customize?
Cerner CommunityWorks 2013:
Newer Kid on the Block
Newer Kid on the Block
While relatively new to the market, Cerner CommunityWorks is quickly gaining traction, especially in critical access and somewhat larger organizations. Its unique model of a hosted solution in conjunction with requisite Application Management Services (AMS) offers a fully integrated solution supporting physician and hospital, clinical and revenue cycle environments. Although provider interest is high, many questions remain. Via detailed conversations with CommunityWorks users, this report deciphers the successes, struggles, and unique aspects associated with this offering.
Telehealth 2013:
Piecing the Puzzle Together
Piecing the Puzzle Together
Telehealth captures the attention of many provider organizations today. With healthcare reform adding approximately 25 million insured patients and increasing accountability, providers are beginning to see telehealth as an affordable and practical solution to meet these new demands. What challenges do providers currently face? What solutions are on the market? And how might telehealth evolve KLAS randomly interviewed 121 health systems across the U.S. to learn the answers and better understand how providers are perceiving this market.
UK GP System Performance 2013:
Making An Informed Decision
Making An Informed Decision
In an effort to ensure that their GP systems are equipped for delivering quality patient care, many GPs across the UK are exploring their options. KLAS interviewed providers from 102 GP practices to offer greater transparency into supplier system performance. Which suppliers lead in system functionality, service, training, and up-to-date technology?
MEDITECH 6.0:
A Lot of Ground to Cover
A Lot of Ground to Cover
MEDITECH promises 6.0 to be the fully integrated, cost-effective, user-friendly answer for today’s healthcare. With providers facing increasing pressure from meaningful use (MU), value-based purchasing, and accountable care, it has never been more important for vendors to deliver on their promises. After three years on the market, how well is MEDITECH 6.0 delivering the advanced clinical usability providers were promised? How does 6.0 compare to MAGIC and C/S, as well as other EMRs on the market? Is MEDITECH 6.0 becoming the EMR of choice to solve today’s healthcare needs?
ECG 2013:
Interfacing Is the Heart of the Matter
Interfacing Is the Heart of the Matter
Providers want their ECG data management systems to connect more easily to their EMR to improve efficiency. Also, providers are looking for more flexibility and interoperability between carts and data management systems, along with wireless capabilities. Which vendors are meeting those needs and expectations in regard to flexibility, interoperability, and functionality? KLAS spoke with 163 providers at 154 healthcare organizations about their ECG carts and data management systems to find out.
Post-Acute Care Perception 2013:
High Hopes and Big Plans
High Hopes and Big Plans
Despite its reputation for complex regulations and slim profit margins, post–acute care is a renewed area of interest for health systems that see it as a critical part of their accountable care strategies. KLAS interviewed 77 hospitals and 51 standalone post–acute care facilities to better understand their plans, challenges, and technology decisions. Among the gaps in enterprise and best-of-breed solutions, what paths are providers taking?
Patient Flow 2013:
Mapping Hospital Operations
Mapping Hospital Operations
In the hospital maze, operations staff members need dynamic maps to see patient movement clearly. Provider focus to improve efficiency and operational capacity has pushed adoption of patient flow software, and few providers would look back. KLAS interviewed 134 providers to ask which vendors offer the best bed management, environmental services (EVS), patient transport, and transfer/access center functionality.
UK PACS 2013:
The View Is Changing
The View Is Changing
In the UK, many healthcare trusts are currently under regional contracts with a licensed service provider (LSP). These PACS contracts are starting to come up for renewal this summer and over the next couple of years, which means hundreds of millions of pounds in imaging IT business. Trusts and individual hospitals are taking a serious look at their options. Clinicians and IT professionals wonder about the track record of and new entrants to the UK PACS market. Which suppliers are best positioned to pick up new business in the UK? KLAS spoke with 93 providers from the UK to find out.
Echocardiography 2013:
2D or Not 2D?
2D or Not 2D?
With cost pressures and radiography dose concerns growing, echocardiography continues to be a key in diagnosing heart conditions. Providers are wondering what new echo technologies are proving to be most beneficial. With new offerings of 3D/4D imaging and TEE, who is delivering? KLAS spoke with 172 providers to find out.
Cloud Computing Perception:
The Hybrid Cloud in Healthcare
The Hybrid Cloud in Healthcare
Adoption of the cloud in healthcare is slowly growing as concerns over security, performance, and data control still loom in providers’ minds. This report asked providers about cloud solutions for their clinical and ERP needs and found that just over one-third of the market has adopted attributes of cloud computing—mostly hybrid cloud computing —for these solutions. This report explores the dynamics of providers using cloud technology as well as the strategies and concerns of those providers who are not currently using cloud technology.
UK and Ireland EPR/PAS Performance 2013:
A Peer Review of Current Experience
A Peer Review of Current Experience
In 2012, 50% of interviewed trusts reported plans to acquire an EPR and PAS in the next 24 months. Key questions providers asked included: Can CSC finally deliver Lorenzo? How does Cerner perform outside of NPfIT? What other suppliers can deliver, outside of Cerner and CSC? KLAS interviewed 45 trusts in the UK and Ireland on their current performance and gathered enough information to report on the following suppliers: Cerner, CSC, and MEDITECH.
Agfa HealthCare 2013:
Partnering With Agfa in 2013
Partnering With Agfa in 2013
As needs evolve for imaging departments, providers are looking for long-term vendor partners that can articulate and execute a strategic vision as a sole source across several solutions. Many vendors have mastered the ability to articulate a vision, but can they truly help their clients achieve the anticipated success? Agfa customers are asking this question. In this study, we will be looking at the full spectrum of deliverables offered by Agfa. Has Agfa achieved a strategic vision with their customers? Do their current customers see them as an excellent partner? And where is Agfa headed?
EDIS 2013:
Revealing the Physicians' Voice
Revealing the Physicians' Voice
Hospitals are moving toward integrated enterprise platforms, and many are including the EDIS in that decision. But what impact does that replacement have on the ED physician? This report—KLAS’ first to review ED systems strictly through the eyes of the physician—compares the differences between enterprise and best-of-breed (BoB) offerings in facilitating ED efficiency, documentation quality, patient safety, and interoperability.
ICD-10 Perception:
Can Technology Relieve Readiness Issues?
Can Technology Relieve Readiness Issues?
The national switch from ICD-9 to ICD-10 rivals the complexity of a heart transplant, with every healthcare organization in the country soberly asking itself if it will survive the surgery. With the deadline being pushed back to 2014, how have providers’ strategies shifted? Is there a shortcut to ICD-10 preparedness? How well are vendors stepping up to help?
Siemens CT:
How Stellar Can A Detector Be?
How Stellar Can A Detector Be?
This KLAS technology review is a first peek globally at Siemens’ new Stellar Detector, a part of the new single-detector SOMATOM Definition Edge and dual-source Definition Flash, as well as an optional upgrade for existing SOMATOM Definition Flash and AS scanners. Specifically, we asked what value in patient care a new detector can have on a decades-old but highly reliable imaging modality. Moreover, how quickly can providers ascertain this value in an environment that increasingly demands real-time or near real-time information?
Radiology PACS Technology:
The World Looks Under The Covers
The World Looks Under The Covers
According to InMedica¹, the PACS, RIS, and CVIS markets are estimated to be billion dollar markets each year over the next five years. With big opportunities for PACS replacement and adoption in the UK, the Middle East, and parts of South America and Asia, providers are looking for resources that will help them make the best healthcare IT decisions and inform them of which vendors are best suited for their needs. KLAS has seen global provider requests and participation increase significantly over the last several years.
KLAS Pharmacy Buyers Guide 2012
From pharmacy automation to smart pumps to medication administration, the "2012 KLAS Pharmacy Buyers Guide" features ratings for more than 100 software packages and equipment offerings, all based on the feedback of thousands of healthcare providers.
KLAS Medical Imaging Buyers Guide 2012
From CT to ultrasound to PACS, the "2012 KLAS Medical Imaging Buyers Guide" features product ratings for hundreds of modalities and software packages.
Intelerad InteleOne:
A KLAS Innovation Review
A KLAS Innovation Review
Intelerad® InteleOne® is an interoperable HL7 DICOM automation solution designed to weave disparate PACS and RIS solutions together into a single enterprise radiology workflow platform, with a goal of achieving greater efficiency, getting quicker study turnaround times, and delivering better patient care. Rather than signing in and out of different PACS solutions all with their own idiosyncrasies, radiologists can sign into one system and see their reads for the day.
Mobile Healthcare Applications:
Can Enterprise Vendors Keep Up?
Can Enterprise Vendors Keep Up?
Mobile devices have exploded into healthcare and are affecting all providers. As physicians work to improve outcomes and be more efficient, effective, and flexible in their delivery of healthcare, they are increasingly looking for ways to integrate mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets into their workflow. Seventy percent of respondents indicated that they are using mobile devices to access clinical applications from almost every major EMR vendor (Allscripts, Cerner, Epic, GE, McKesson, MEDITECH, and Siemens), and more providers use Apple than any other device. Apple’s dominance has been fueled by healthcare user preference as physicians bring their own devices (BYOD) into organizations to help them provide patient care.
England’s EPR Perception 2012:
Supplier Mindshare Post NPfIT
Supplier Mindshare Post NPfIT
The climate in England is r ipe for change —with nearly 50% of surveyed trusts going to tender in the next 24 months for an EPR solution and another third going to tender by 2015. In addition, 89% were looking to change their patient administrat ion system (PAS) at the same time, with many looking for an integrated EPR/PAS solution. The vast majority of trusts will be contracting directly with their EPR supplier for the software, implementation, and ongoing support. KLAS spoke with approximately 25% of the acute care trusts in England about their upcoming tenders.
Anesthesia Cabinets:
Is My Automation Vendor Ready?
Is My Automation Vendor Ready?
A KLAS Brief distills the most important trends and data from an emerging market into an easily digested two-page report. KLAS Brief purchasers also receive access to a corresponding webinar detailing findings and a Q&A session with the brief’s author.
Rapid Growth of Meaningful Use Consulting:
Why Providers Are Reaching Out
Why Providers Are Reaching Out
To be frank, providers need help attesting for meaningful use (MU) Stage 1 and beyond. Most have not yet attested, and many who originally decided to tackle MU implementations, optimizations, and other projects on their own are feeling overstretched and overwhelmed and are scrambling for third-party assistance. One CFO said, “We were struggling to do the implementation ourselves, and I ultimately bit the bullet and hired Cumberland to come in and help us get our act together. It turned out to be one of the best decisions of my professional career.”
HIE Consulting:
Leveraging Third-Party Expertise for HIE Success
Leveraging Third-Party Expertise for HIE Success
A KLAS Brief distills the most important trends and data from an emerging market into an easily digested two-page report. KLAS Brief purchasers also receive access to a corresponding webinar detailing findings and a Q&A session with the brief’s author.
Navigating the Sea of Epic Consulting Firms
Demand is at an all-time high for Epic consultants. KLAS verified an unbelievable 45 firms doing Epic-related work, and there are certainly additional firms and a host of independent consultants that KLAS has not yet validated. Epic’s customers are often large hospitals/health systems with strong IT teams, but the size and complexity of the Epic installs combined with pressing timelines have created a strong need for additional firepower—from a large implementation force running the show to project managers to just a boost in manpower.
SaaS EMR 2012:
Is It For You?
Is It For You?
KLAS spoke with over 260 healthcare providers that are currently using SaaS EMR.
Proton Therapy 2012:
Dollars, Decisions, and Debates
Dollars, Decisions, and Debates
With only 10 live centers in the U.S., speculation about the required investment and effectiveness of proton therapy is plentiful, but actual facts are in short supply. In the cancer treatment world, proton therapy is a hot topic; it is critical for some patients, as well as expensive and controversial.
Microsoft Amalga 2012:
The Price of Flexibility
The Price of Flexibility
Amalga predates the latest healthcare reforms and seems tailor-made to meet these needs, yet the platform has experienced halting adoption and mixed success and—to some observers—still suffers an identity crisis. Given Amalga’s potential yet lack of progress, KLAS felt providers would benefit from a closer look at Amalga’s story. We spoke with 16 organizations, representing 75 percent of live customers—in an effort to understand what attracted them to Amalga, what was delivered, and why some have experienced success and others only regret.
Urgent Care 2012:
A Host of EMR Options
A Host of EMR Options
Estimates suggest 9,000 urgent care centers exist today in America, with approximately 86% indicating plans for additional locations, larger facilities, or simply increased volume. Urgent care centers select from a host of EMR options, including best-of-breed systems, EDIS solutions, or ambulatory offerings. KLAS interviewed 76 urgent care organizations to determine what types of urgent care EMR solutions are best meeting providers’ needs, focusing on best-of-breed vendors CodoniX, DocuTAP, and Practice Velocity.
Meaningful Use Attestation 2012:
Early Birds Take Flight
Early Birds Take Flight
At present, meaningful use (MU) is one of the most focused-on initiatives in American healthcare. As of November 2011, 833 (or roughly 14%) of U.S. hospitals have attested to meeting Stage 1 requirements, with many more lining up to follow. CMS data shows that both large and small hospital vendors found success in the first year of MU attestation. Hospitals using Allscripts, Healthland, HMS, McKesson, and Siemens were slower to take off than others using Cerner, CPSI, Epic, and MEDITECH. Why are some vendors ahead and others behind? Which providers felt their vendor was prepared to attest, and who weathered a few storms? And how confident are providers in their vendor for meeting Stages 1–2? KLAS interviewed 104 successful provider attesters to find out.
Paragon:
A Paradigm Shift
A Paradigm Shift
In some ways, Paragon is like McKesson’s growing teenager: McKesson is investing a lot of money in Paragon and it is developing rapidly and starting to get a deep voice, but some elements are not fully developed or have just recently bloomed. The increased multimillion dollar investment in Paragon was announced in December 2011 as part of McKesson’s Better Health 2020 strategy; the rapid growth is seen in the fact that Paragon’s customer base has nearly quadrupled over the last five years and in the accelerated delivery of Paragon functionality; the immaturity is manifest with product gaps in ambulatory, HR, and physician documentation (which was recently released in December 2011) and weaknesses with ED and lab.
Medical Device Integration 2012:
Proven Connections
Proven Connections
Going into 2012, one could argue that the healthcare world’s dominant concern is cost. The industry is awash with grand initiatives such as meaningful use, health information exchange, accountable care organizations, and more, all of which aim to make healthcare more efficient while improving quality. In a simple, more immediate way, some healthcare providers are quietly getting a bump in quality and efficiency through medical device integration systems (MDIS).
Application Hosting:
Dynamic Changes Bring Providers Better Options
Dynamic Changes Bring Providers Better Options
The application hosting market has seen tremendous changes over the past two years. Performance has shifted dramatically for nearly every hosting provider measured, with some service firms now better rivaling the traditionally high-performing software vendors. Additionally, there have been three major changes in the market landscape, with Xerox acquiring ACS, Allscripts partnering with ACS for the latter to run its hosting business, and Velocity acquiring NaviSite’s Lawson hosting unit.
HIE Perception 2011:
Public or Private?
Public or Private?
In the 2010 health information exchange (HIE) study, the loudest concern among providers looking at HIE options was how technologically savvy the vendor was. HIEs were largely seen as nebulous with little proven experience. Although the waters are still a little muddy a year later, vendors now offer more proven technology and experience, which seems to have shifted providers’ primary concerns away from technology and toward cost and long-term viability. In this study, the story splits into public versus private HIE models. Diverse provider needs lend to different HIE types, and while there is some overlap, most vendors play either to the private or public area. Of the famous five Ws, the biggest question is, who? Who can get the job done the fastest and cheapest, while leaving providers the most control?
Path to Cloud Computing Foggy:
Perception Study 2011
Perception Study 2011
What is cloud computing? The term has been around for nearly a decade in the industrial, financial, construction, and software industries, but its entrance into healthcare is only a few years old. Despite all the cloud washing(the practice of rebranding ASP or application hosting services as cloud solutions) that is happening in the IT world right now, there is still some confusion among providers as to exactly what cloud computing is, its potential application within healthcare, and how providers have utilized it thus far.
MEDITECH V.6 2011:
Expectations Meet Reality
Expectations Meet Reality
With the largest hospital EMR market share, MEDITECH impacts more hospitals and patients than most other vendors. Key to MEDITECH’s popularity has been clients’ willingness to accept weak clinical usability in exchange for affordability and stability. Recently, however, government pressures to advance meaningful use (MU) have pushed clients to demand more. In answer, MEDITECH has been rolling out an upgraded platform now referred to as v.6. Sales seem brisk, with over 50 sites live and another 150 contracted. At the same time, some v.6 customers have canceled go lives mid-implementation, and other large, long-time MEDITECH customers are demoing competing products or jumping the MEDITECH ship entirely. These kind of decisions were rarely heard of in the past and providers are asking, “Is v.6 ready?”
Epic Beaker:
Ready or Not?
Ready or Not?
The laboratory market typically sees little movement. Because of the expense and complexity from a laboratory system’s deep penetration into a hospital, laboratory systems are not changed frequently. If providers do change, it is rarely from a more sophisticated solution to a more immature one. One product that seems to be bucking that trend is Epic Beaker, Epic’s newly available laboratory solution. Of surveyed Epic hospitals currently using other laboratory solutions, over half are preparing to make the switch from their current laboratory solution to Epic—most within the next one to two years—despite noting its current immaturity in comparison to their more advanced solutions.
Inventory Management in Pharmacy Automation:
Seeking Efficiency in a Complex Process
Seeking Efficiency in a Complex Process
One organization described saving over $1 million from improving their inventory management system, while another described losing thousands of dollars from drug overstock and inventory inefficiency. How are providers moving from the more common second scenario to the first? With providers tightening belts all around, many want to improve their bottom line through better drug inventory management. Pharmacies want to decrease inventory on hand—“money on the shelf”—and expired medications—“money in the trash.” However, the best approach is not obvious.
PET/CT 2011:
New Technologies in Focus
New Technologies in Focus
Medical imaging reconciles a multitude of challenges; however, the obstacles that Positron Emission Tomography/Computed Tomography (PET/CT) has to confront are unique. Advanced technology and proactive service have launched these scanners ahead of their current patient volumes. KLAS spoke with medical professionals in order to understand how the recent refinements in PET/CT have affected providers and what providers are doing to take full advantage of this relatively new pairing.
CPOE 2011:
The ARRA Effect
The ARRA Effect
In the years leading up to the passage of ARRA, computerized physician order entry (CPOE) was considered a best practice in the U.S. healthcare market, but CPOE adoption among U.S. providers was increasing at only a leisurely pace. Typically larger or more advanced organizations were making CPOE progress, while the rest of the market saw CPOE as something they would do eventually, but they were in no hurry. By the end of 2008, only an estimated 12.5% of U.S. hospitals were live on CPOE.
Clinical Implementation Services:
High in Demand but More Specialized in Need
High in Demand but More Specialized in Need
The need for consultants with specialized and vendor-specific expertise is growing. Increasing amounts of community hospitals and hospitals under 500 beds are acquiring and implementing EMRs, and they are reaching out to consultants for guidance and assistance. Many larger hospitals needing clinical documentation and CPOE assistance are seeking consultants to assist in a supportive capacity. Consequently, this environment has produced an increasing number of overall projects, but fewer projects in which firms take the lead in large-scale implementations.
Extended Business Office Services:
Money Talks
Money Talks
Most healthcare provider organizations use third-party firms for Extended Business Office Services (EBOS), but the engagements are varied. These services range from temporary project-based work, such as netting down A/R or handling batches of legacy receivables, to continual assistance with things like financial clearance or ongoing A/R follow-up of a certain insurer, age, or dollar amount. Just as there is a wide variety of services that business process outsourcing (BPO) firms offer, there is a wide variety of firms from which providers can choose. The 90 provider survey respondents in this study identified a total of 21 total firms they were utilizing, of which 10 qualified to be included in this report (7 ranked and 3 for early trending). To make the landscape even more complex, many of these BPO firms specialize in one or two revenue cycle services and in certain facility sizes.
Internal Wireless Voice Communication System:
Improving Patient Care and Satisfaction by Staying Connected
Improving Patient Care and Satisfaction by Staying Connected
Only a decade ago, contemplating a switch from traditional telephone systems to wireless VoIP technology made most healthcare IT executives squirm. Many viewed sole reliance on unproven wireless IP telephony as a significant risk, especially when considering how crucial voice communications are to the inner workings of a hospital. Providers were just starting to implement wireless networks for the most basic usage, and most were not considering the additional technical requirements of wireless VoIP.
Winning with Service and Reliability:
CR Review 2011
CR Review 2011
X-ray continues to be the primary diagnostic imaging resource of choice. To that end, Computed Radiography (CR) technology has proven to be a cost-effective way to extend the life and ROI of x-ray equipment. This is increasingly relevant as hospitals face the pressure of improving outcomes and meeting the demands of meaningful use, healthcare reform, and lower reimbursements.
Enterprise Scheduling:
Best-of-Breeds and Shifting Provider Strategies
Best-of-Breeds and Shifting Provider Strategies
Patient access—scheduling, admissions, and registration—is on the minds of many healthcare providers as they look for ways to operate more efficiently. Scheduling systems, in particular, are becoming more central to the patient-access process. Healthcare organizations are finding that these solutions can have a tremendous impact on the revenue cycle process, clinician productivity, strategic use of human and material resources, patient throughput and satisfaction, and, ultimately, the bottom line.
A Provider's Guide to MEDITECH Consulting Firms
How does a vendor help ensure that over 1,000 hospital clients qualify for stimulus funding? Many MEDITECH clients look to MEDITECH for help meeting requirements in areas such as CPOE, only to discover the vendor is too stretched and unable to assist. How does MEDITECH move over a thousand hospitals to their new v.6, or at least help providers get all the components installed to qualify using MAGIC 5.6.4? One answer to these questions may lie in the extra manpower and expertise consulting firms can provide. But which one should a hospital use? Big bucks and meaningful use (MU) qualification are on the line, so getting it right the first time is critical.
Surgery Management 2010:
In Pursuit of Advanced Functionality
In Pursuit of Advanced Functionality
In the overall picture of a hospital, the surgery department plays a critical role. Not only does it have a substantial financial impact on the hospital, it is a critical point of care for patients—a point where clinician actions can significantly impact patients’ lives. Because so much rides on a well-run surgery department, a hospital’s surgery management system plays an important role in that hospital’s ability to meet both its financial and clinical goals.
Single Sign On:
To Identity Management and Beyond
To Identity Management and Beyond
Faster logins, increased productivity, enhanced clinical workflow, and improved security are among the benefits providers seek in single sign-on (SSO) technologies. As in 2008, when KLAS first published research on the SSO market, increasing numbers of providers continue to report that these solutions free clinicians from many repetitive tasks associated with logging into applications to access patient information. This freedom allows clinicians to focus more on patient care and their own workflow without being encumbered by technology. SSO prevents users from having to enter multiple usernames and passwords and, when implemented and used correctly, can greatly reduce the number of clicks required to access clinical systems.
Transcription Services:
Competition, Technology, Consolidation
Competition, Technology, Consolidation
Providers are more satisfied with their transcription vendors than they have ever been, and competition at the top has heated up. However, providers have also shown that their needs are changing. While quality, turnaround times, and service continue to heavily influence satisfaction, evolving technology has emerged as a likely differentiator.
RAC Management Vendors:
Early Leaders Among Rising Awareness
Early Leaders Among Rising Awareness
What for years was perceived by many healthcare institutions as a distant concern has finally arrived. The long-dreaded Medicare Recovery Audit Contractor (RAC) program is picking up steam, bolstered by a federal mandate that all states must establish fully operational RAC programs by April 1, 2011. Originally conducted as a three-year demonstration program in just a handful of states, RAC audits have now been made permanent by the Tax Relief and Health Care Act of 2006. This process dictates that RAC audits now be conducted in all 50 states in an effort to identify improper Medicare payments. Any home health agency, physician office, durable medical equipment company, or other organization that bills Medicare could be a target for these audits.
Siemens Soarian:
Making Strides in Clinical Adoption
Making Strides in Clinical Adoption
Since its release in 2001, the story of Siemens Soarian has been one of ups and downs. When the solution was first introduced to the market, it generated quite a bit of excitement, and expectations were high. But in the early years, Siemens was unable to meet those high expectations. Early adopters complained of system instability, and Siemens failed to meet development deadlines.
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Personal Health Records (PHRs):
Strategies Taking Shape
Strategies Taking Shape
Autumn is here and colorful leaves are falling. When trying to rake leaves in the wind, people may have a terrific rake and a smooth lawn, but the leaves will travel with the wind. So it is with personal health record (PHR) adoption by the general population. Recent stimulus dollars have energized PHRs as a way to deliver patient data from an electronic medical record (EMR), ultimately giving consumers control of their own medical information, but building a PHR that patients will fully use is often like trying to create a tidy pile of leaves in a windstorm. KLAS interviewed 120 acute care organizations, representing over 750 hospitals, about their PHR intentions. Close to 90 percent have PHRs on their minds and are starting pilots or actively formulating a plan, while just over 10 percent have no plans and are not investing time or energy on PHRs.
Shifting Demand for Consultants:
Who's Hot, Who's Not, and Why
Who's Hot, Who's Not, and Why
At its introduction, the electronic medical record (EMR) provoked a ground swell of large-scale EMR implementations, mostly dominated by five professional services firms (PSFs): Accenture, ACS, CTG, FCG, and IBM. Now the bulk of EMR implementations—large projects, big budgets, major firms—is nearly gone. The market landscape is different, with smaller clients, more limited projects, and a multitude of firms. Acquisitions have diffused talent across many smaller firms, who are taking a bite of the pie once owned by a select few.
Getting to Stimulus Funding:
Which Consultants Can Help?
Which Consultants Can Help?
Over 90 percent of acute care hospitals in the U.S. have work to do to clear the CMS-proposed CPOE adoption hurdle. For some, their work will just be an internal focus and rollout using their own staff. For others, it will require outside resources, mostly from third-party consulting firms. Many will make major investments in a professional services firm (PSF) to lead and staff the CPOE rollout from planning, project management, software implementation, and training to a live CPOE implementation, including clinical transformation. This report will address the major PSFs, providing past performance scores where available. The information should help hospitals and IDNs, whether they are looking for advisory services and staff augmentation or for full project delivery, to achieve the CMS-proposed CPOE levels. The goal of this study is to break the information down into bite-sized pieces for the provider community.
KLAS HIT Buyers Guide 2010
From EMRs to clearinghouse services to PACS, the KLAS HIT Buyers Guide features product ratings for over 700 software packages and services offerings. At HIMSS 2010 and beyond, the buyers guide is a resource to help healthcare providers get past the hype and make informed technology decisions. The guide features objective ratings for each software vendor’s implementation, service and product quality, and each services vendor's sales, delivery and communication – all based on the feedback of thousands of healthcare providers.
