KLAS ranks healthcare IT software, services companies. Image Source: Campus Safety

KLAS today released its annual rankings of the best-performing healthcare software and services vendors, which include providers of PACS, radiology systems, EMRs, cardiology systems and application hosting.

Kent Gale, founder and chairman of the market research firm, explained to Cardiovascular Business News that the firm has released this report for the last 10 years, based on approximately 1,500 monthly interviews mainly focused in the acute-care setting across the United States, as well as approximately 12,000 physician offices.

In commenting on trends over the past year, Gale noted that “clinician settings are particularly active for diagnostic imaging,” especially for oncology software, which has experienced high adoption rates.

“Right now, we are publishing a new report on cardiology because of the trends in that area. For instance, cardiology reporting has been a real headache for people,” Gale noted. “However, cardiology PACS and the imaging side of cardiovascular care is typically more advanced than the reporting side. Yet, most providers would prefer to go to one vendor for both their radiology and cardiology PACS, as opposed to having to purchase separate systems for radiology and cardiology.” He added that there is a great deal of interest in cardiology, because it is a large source of revenue.

Overall, the 2008 Best in KLAS vendors are:

Software Best in KLAS Winners
Acute Care EMR Epic EpicCare Inpatient	Homecare McKesson Horizon Homecare
Ambulatory EMR (Over 100 Phys.) Epic EpicCare Ambulatory	Laboratory Siemens Novius Lab
Ambulatory EMR (26-100 Phys.) Allscripts Enterprise EHR (TouchWorks)	PACS GE Centricity PACS-IW (Dynamic Imaging)
Ambulatory EMR (6-25 Phys.) Greenway Medical PrimeSuite Chart	Patient Accounting and Patient Mgmt Epic Resolute Hospital Billing
Ambulatory EMR (2-5 Phys.) Greenway Medical PrimeSuite Chart	Pharmacy Epic EpicRx Inpatient
Cardiology Digisonics Digiview	Practice Management (Over 100 Phys.) Epic Resolute/Prelude/Cadence
Community HIS McKesson Paragon	Practice Management (26-100 Phys.) athenahealth
Decision Support – Business Eclipsys Sunrise EPSi Decision Support	Practice Management (6-25 Phys.) Greenway Medical PrimeSuite Practice
Document Management and Imaging MedPlus ChartMaxx	Practice Management (2-5 Phys.) Athenahealth
Emergency Department Wellsoft EDIS	Radiology Information Systems Epic Radiant
Enterprise Scheduling USA RMS	Speech Recognition Nuance eScription
Financial/ERP McKesson Pathways Fin./Materials/HR Mgr	Surgery Management USA ORMS

Professional Services Best in KLAS Winners
Application Hosting (CIS/ERP/HIS) NaviSite	IT Outsourcing (Extensive) CareTech
Clearinghouse Services Navicure	Outsourced Transcription Transcend Services Inc.
Clinical Implementation Principal Perot Systems	Planning and Assessment Impact Advisors
Clinical Implementation Supportive Coastal Healthcare Consulting	Revenue Cycle Transformation Deloitte Consulting
Financial Implementation ACS	Technical Services Orchestrate Healthcare

This year, Epic was rated number one overall among software vendors, while Hayes Management Consulting topped the list of services firms. Other highly rated vendors include 3M, Fujifilm Medical Systems, Sunquest Information Systems and CTGHS.

Gale concluded that KLAS conducts this report annually to assist providers in their decision-making process when acquiring new software and services.

“With detailed analysis of literally hundreds of healthcare IT products and services, the 2008 Top 20 Best in KLAS Awards report is a guide designed to help providers learn from the experiences of their peers and make the right choices for their organizations,” according to KLAS President Adam Gale.