Dive Brief:
- Epic was once again named the top EHR vendor for large U.S. hospitals by KLAS Research in its annual awards. Epic also won the category for ambulatory and post-acute care hospitals, as well as practice management. It's the 10th year in a row Epic has been on top of the list for its overall software suite.
- CPSI won the award for the most improved software product for its Evident Thrive Patient Management suite. According to KLAS, customer satisfaction for the product has risen by 25% over the past year. Cerner Practice Management had the most improved suite for small physician practices, with a reported 10% increase in satisfaction.
- HMS was named No. 1 for payer solutions while Philips led for imaging systems. In the consulting categories, PwC won for financial improvement and Accenture was named the top company for healthcare management while Deloitte and Navigant tied for the top spot in value-based care.
Dive Insight:
The widespread digitization of the healthcare setting over the past 20 years has led to a dizzying array of EHR systems and ancillary products. The movement has also made industry giants out of companies such as Cerner and Epic.
However, making sense of which EHR suites are the most effective is altogether another initiative to be undertaken by the provider community. The KLAS awards are an attempt at adding some clarity to the playing field.
On the global side, Epic also took top honors for acute care in Europe. Allscripts won in the same category for Canada, while Cerner's Millennium PowerChart took the honors in Africa/Middle East. For PACS systems, VISUS JiveX won in Europe, while Spectra won in Canada and PaxeraHealth won in Africa/Middle East.
The findings come as Epic has drawn fire from patient advocates and some physicians for an attempt to scuttle a final HHS proposed rule that would require EHR systems to be able to share data with third-party apps.
"We are concerned that healthcare costs will rise, that care will suffer, and that patients and their family members will lose control of their confidential health information," Epic CEO Judy Faulkner said in an email the company widely circulated to high-ranking healthcare system executives to urge them to push back against the proposed rules.
Meanwhile, Allscripts recently admitted that it took payments to put physician cues into its systems to encourage doctors to prescribe opioid medications.