TEXT/PODCAST: Best in KLAS 2010 Revealed (One-on-One w/President Adam Gale, Chapter 1)

Adam Gale, President, KLAS

In its end-of-year report – 2010 Top 20 Best in KLAS Awards: Software & Professional Services – KLAS finds Epic is the top-ranked overall software vendor, with a performance score of 87.0 out of 100, followed by Picis and Philips. The top-rated overall services firm is Hayes Management (90.5), followed by Vitalize Consulting Solutions Inc. and CTG.

(To hear a Podcast interview with KLAS President Adam Gale, click on the player below.)

KLAS President Adam Gale said people keep asking him if Epic can maintain its position at the top of the HIT heap. After reviewing the vendor’s last 13 go-lives this year, and finding they aggregate to an “A” score on the KLAS scale, he said there’s no reason to think Epic will falter anytime soon.

“To me, it’s almost mindboggling that even with their extreme growth they have very happy clients. It’s amazing, just in terms of their ability to hire, train, and move new people along,” Gale said. “Certainly every site has issues and challenges but, in comparison, it’s staggering what they’ve been able to do — keeping their Best in KLAS status in core clinicals, core financials, ambulatory. In a lot of the pieces that we measure, they come out as Best in KLAS.”

Gale also found the improvement of Siemens’ Soarian worthy of note. “For years, it seemed like Soarian just dragged along, like a car that was almost in neutral. The Soarian product itself is much improved from where it was a year ago. The support is better and adoption is up significantly,” he said.

Gale notes that the Siemens turnaround started before Partners HealthCare VP and CIO John Glaser took over the helm. But certainly, he said, Glaser joining Siemens has had a positive effect. “The energy among clients has increased because they know the product is now ready, and you combine that with the faith they have in John as a leader at Siemens and it seems like this is the biggest turnaround we have seen of the major vendors this year.”

But Siemens, said Gale, wasn’t the only vendor to show improvement in 2010. Specifically in the ambulatory space, Cerner has shown new strength. Gale partially attributes the improvement to the vendor hosting its software for clients.

“We found that made a big difference because sites were able to upgrade faster as new code came out. They seem to have a new vibrancy and a new energy around the ambulatory space. I won’t say that it’s caught up to some of the best-of-breed players, but certainly some of the Cerner customers who are counting on them delivering in this area are feeling much better today than they were 12, 18 months ago.”

Finally, Gale cited McKesson’s Paragon suite as a big mover in 2010. Interestingly, McKesson now has two major HIT product suites, leaving hospitals in the 300-400 bed range with an interesting choice.

“We see Paragon being a much more formidable player in the market than it has been historically, and that includes larger hospitals that normally would have looked at Horizon (McKesson’s other suite) or Allscripts, or someone else. All of a sudden, Paragon may be an option for 300-400 bed hospitals that want an integrated system versus some of the best-of-breed approaches. So that’s been a little bit of a surprise to us. We’ve seen it coming the last few years, but it really seems to have turned a corner this year.”

The KLAS end of year report includes the annual rankings of the best-performing healthcare IT vendors based on more than 17,000 interviews conducted yearly with healthcare providers. KLAS rankings measure a vendor’s performance in areas of product quality, implementation, and service and support. The top-rated companies in key market categories earned the 2010 Best in KLAS distinction, signifying their leadership in meeting customer expectations. The award is reserved for companies in the largest and most impactful market segments.

Podcast Chapter 1

Level setting: Trends moving the industry
New features in the report
Gale’s highlights
- Soarian leads Siemens’ turnaround
- Cerner’s ambulatory bounce
- Epic’s confounding consistency
- Paragon shines bright for McKesson

2010 Best in KLAS vendors for software

Acute Care EMR	Homecare
Epic EpicCare Inpatient EMR	Homecare Homebase
Ambulatory EMR (Over 100 Physicians)	Laboratory
Epic EpicCare Ambulatory EMR	Siemens Novius Lab
Ambulatory EMR (26-100 Physicians)	PACS
eClinicalWorks EMR	DR Systems Unity
Ambulatory EMR (6-25 Physicians)	Patient Acc. & Management
Greenway Medical PrimeSuite Chart	Epic Resolute Hospital Billing
Ambulatory EMR (2-5 Physicians)	Pharmacy
e-MDs Chart	Epic Willow
Business Intelligence/Reporting	Practice Mgt Over 100 Physicians)
Dimensional Insight The Diver Solution	Epic Resolute/Prelude/Cadence
Cardiology	Practice Mgt. (26-100 Physicians)
Digisonics DigiView	McKesson Horizon Practice Plus
Community HIS	Practice Management (6-25 Physicians)
McKesson Paragon	Greenway Medical PrimeSuite Practice
Decision Support – Business	Practice Management (2-5 Physicians)
Allscripts Sunrise EPSi Dec. Sup. – Eclipsys	e-MDs Bill
Document Management and Imaging	Radiology
MedPlus ChartMaxx	Epic Radiant
Emergency Department	Speech Recognition
Wellsoft EDIS	Nuance eScription
Enterprise Scheduling	Surgery Management
Unibased Systems Architecture RMS	Unibased Systems Architecture ORMS
Financial/ERP
McKesson Pathways Fin./Materials/HR Mgr

2010 Best in KLAS vendors for professional services

Application Hosting (CIS/ERP/HIS)	Planning and Assessment
Cerner	Impact Advisors
Claims and Clearinghouse Services	Revenue Cycle Transformation
Navicure	Deloitte Consulting
Clinical Implementation Principal	Technical Services
Deloitte Consulting	ACS
Clinical Implementation Supportive	Teleradiology Services
Innovative Healthcare Solutions Inc.	Virtual Radiologic (vRad)
Financial ERP Implementation	Transcription Services
ACS	Webmedx
IT Outsourcing (Extensive)
CareTech Solutions Inc.