Rating the Ratings

Part 2 – Origins & Today’s Leader

By Vince Ciotti & Elise AmesHIS Professionals, LLC

(with a lot of help from Mr. HIStalk,and many of you readers)

It All Started With…• We’re starting our “review of reviewers” with the four leading

agencies that rate Hospital Information Systems (HIS), which will be followed by the large number of Physician Practice reviewers.

• The HIS-tory of HIS vendor reviews started almost as long ago as our industry itself with an HIS maven who is still working today!

• Way back in 1969, a hot MBA graduate formed a pioneering mini-based vendor called Compucare, which he ran until 1975 when he sold out his shares and formed his own consulting firm: SIDA, for Sheldon I. Dorenfest & Associates.

• One of Shelly’s first projects was to review the HIS industry at the time for Technicon, the pioneering EMR vendor. Shelly did such a knock-out job researching this tome that he got the idea to expand it into the “Dorenfest Guide” for all HIS vendors.

Numbers, facts, data…• Shelly completed his first “Guide” in 1980, which I bought when I

was Manager of Marketing Services at McAuto. It was replete with detailed numbers & data, as seen in these sample tables below, all backed up with hard figures on annual revenue, # of clients by bed size, etc., all based on a survey of 250 hospitals.

Ancient Vendors

• Dorenfest’s Guide dug into many apps listed in the columns on the right. No “EHR” back then – just “Data Collection” and “HIS/MIS”

• Remember these ancient vendor names? Can you find the only name that’s still around today??

First Vendor Ratings

• In 1989, Shelly dared to break new ground and research how HIS vendors were rated by their clients.

• The report was titled “The Truth About Vendor Performance” and was over 600 pages long!

SIDA -> HIMSS Analytics• Although the original Dorenfest Guide

started with research into “only” 250 hospitals, about 5% of the 5K+ total, over time Shelly expanded his data base to over 3,000 hospitals. He published a plethora of reports that became the source for data in the 1990s as the “Dorenfest 3000” db.

• In 2004, Shelly sold it to HIMSS; renamed “HIMSS Analytics,” today’s leading source of data on the industry for vendors & CIOs.

• However, unlike SIDA, HIMSS Analytics is vendor neutral, providing a wealth of statistics on vendors & products (e.g., # of clients by bed/practice size), but no ratings in terms of client satisfaction.

• This vendor neutral model helps HIMSS to get over 40K people to visit vendor booths at their annual conference every year…

HIMSS Analytics Reports & Surveys• HIMSS Analytics has tons of data an almost every aspect of HIS &

MD systems, as documented in this list from their web site.

• But when we inquired about their $1K report on “Outpatient PM & EHR Solutions” (‘outpatient’ = physician practices?), the sample they sent had mainly market stats like how many facilities have purchased EHRs, what their size was, when they bought, # of clients by vendor, etc., but no ranking of vendors was listed...

Who Else Rated HIS vendors?• Ron L. Johnson – another HIS-tory pioneer, also analyzed the HIS

market in depth and rated vendors, as shown in this 1994 review from the National Report on Computers & Hospitals (NRCH):

• Ron sold annual reports on all leading HIS vendors well into the 2000s, giving details on product lines, annual revenue, # of clients & sales, even ball-park prices!

• His reports listed each vendors’ strengths & weaknesses, which few vendors admit to.

Who Rates HIS Vendors Today?• The 2 leaders in providing ratings of HIS vendors today are KLAS

and Black Book, who also rate physician practice vendors.– These two raters were far & away the most often reviewed in

the 50+ responses to HIStalk’s survey we received so far… • Both of these firms offer detailed vendor ratings based on

questionnaires & interviews with actual hospital clients, ranking vendors & products in terms of the top 10 by application (eg: EHR, RCM, LIS, etc.) and categories (user-friendly, support, etc.).

• We’re going to add a 3rd rater to these two leaders: Peer60, because their recent Epic review with Mr. HIStalk, which originally inspired us to delve into this whole area.– Even though they only reviewed Epic, not any other vendors,

their unique methodology & results published provides a fascinating contrast to that of other rating agencies.

• So let’s dig into the history and background of today’s leaders:

A KLAS Act• This leader in today’s vendor ratings is named after:

– Kent Gale - The founder of KLAS was also an early HIS pioneer, whose HIS-tory includes working for many HIS vendors (including Medlab, Sunquest, 3M, GTE & Compucare) as well as Intermountain Healthcare (IHC), where he met some of the key co-founders of KLAS:

– Leonard Black – No more puns about KLAS’ major competitor’s name, nor about the CEO of Allscripts…

– Adam Gale – Kent’s son, well-named for a co-founder…

– Scott Holbrook – another HIS-tory pioneer, whose resume includes stints with IBM and McAuto before he joined IHC in 1977. IHC developed Medseries4, which they sold to GTE which Scott joined. He was also VP of Sales for Sunquest, co-founder & EVP at Park City Solutions (an LIS vendor), and EVP/COO at Integrated Medical Networks. He left KLAS in 2013 to join Health Catalyst (a data analytics firm).

The Dominant Rating Agency• Since its humble 4-person beginning in 1996, KLAS has grown to

over 140 FTEs, and is today the source for ratings of both hospitals and physician systems, as well as many other services:

- Industry Reports – this snapshot from their web site shows some recent reports on specialty niches.

- Inisght & Analysis Services – another snapshot from their web site, KLAS also offers consulting to assist clients in making system purchasing decisions.

- Investor Services – per their web site, KLAS also offers help to investors: M & As, Market Analysis & Insight, Opportunity Identification, Due Diligence, and Post Acquisition Support.

Marketing MavensIt is absolutely amazing how KLAS dominates the headlines in every industry publication and web site, per these examples:

Maybe they should offer marketing consulting to HIS vendors too!?

Next Week• Our next episode will give the background of 2 other HIS raters:

– Black Book – the prime competitor to KLAS in popularity.– Peer60 – who did the recent rating of Epic with Mr. HIStalk.

• After that, future episodes will cover:– How we rate these leading HIS raters based on our criteria:

• # of responses, job titles, product/release, date of info, dollars...– The results of HIStalk’s survey, over 50 responses already!

• http://histalk.com/machform/view.php?id=33836– Leaders of the dozens of physician practice system ratings:

• Besides KLAS & BB: FPM, SK&A, Software Advice, MD Buyline…– DIY - how to “do it yourself” – cheaper & more relevant?

• Your size facility, your state, your product, your apps…• For questions, comments, or complaints, please contact us at:

– vciotti@hispros.com, 505.466.4958 or eames@hispros.com, 413.329.6925