KLAS: CIOs Must Consider Total Cost of Ownership

Sticker price is only one, and may not even be the most important, factor to consider when evaluating an EMR purchase, according to a new report from KLAS — Acute Care EMR, Getting Your Money’s Worth: The Overall Experience.

Those other factors include unexpected costs, physician usability, missed delivery dates, response time, stability and workflow interruptions. So buyers may find though they can “afford” to buy a particular solution, they can’t afford to own it or be successful with it in other ways, such as achieving significant adoption of CPOE.

Epic is the only vendor in the report with high ratings for money’s worth, contracting and costs — and Epic projects have the largest scope of any vendor.

Meditech is reported to be most consistently within or under budget delivering their solution, with Epic a close second. Cerner, Eclipsys, McKesson (mainly Horizon clients, but with several Paragon included), and Siemens are tightly grouped in the second tier. Being within budget is significant but only one primary measurement in ownership. “Because the process has matured, there are fewer pioneers and buyers are savvier, it is less likely today that an EMR project will go way beyond budget,” found KLAS.

Meditech clients report little variation from what they expect compared to what they get in the Meditech contract, delivery, and post-live selling events; however, clients suffer with Meditech’s lack of proactive help in getting their money’s worth.

When it comes to keeping promises, KLAS found that GE is the outlier. Since the acquisition of IDX, GE clients have reported a downward trend in its meeting commitments.