Integration capability weighs heavily on hospital executives replacing legacy lab systems and revenue management technology, according to two new reports from research firm KLAS.
Seventeen percent of hospitals with 200 beds or more plan to replace their lab systems within the next two years, according to KLAS.
The "Laboratory Information Systems - Performance/Perception" report reveals that the decision about which lab vendor to pursue is split between two camps: Deploy a feature-rich laboratory information system (LIS) to drive greater efficiency in the lab or go with an enterprise-wide solution that supports faster, easier integration with other clinical systems.
"In other words, is there an LIS that is so advanced that there is an obvious return on investment that supercedes the benefit from the integrated alternative?" the report asks.
The answer seems to be no. The report notes that cutting-edge LIS features currently have little impact on adoption trends, according to KLAS.
Most providers are not making use of advanced genetic- or molecular-testing capabilities, and most feel vendors have work to do to make those features more viable, the report concludes.
In KLAS' rankings, for large hospitals with greater than 200 beds, Siemens Novius Lab was the top-rated laboratory information system (83.2), with Sunquest Lab placing second (82.6) and McKesson Horizon Lab placing third (80.8). Among community hospitals, Orchard Harvest LIS took the top spot (91.5), followed by Antek LabDAQ (86.3) and Sunquest Lab (82.4).
Nearly 70 percent of the 266 providers interviewed for the report indicated there is no best LIS in their view, and that an LIS that is integrated or part of an enterprise solution is preferred,
The decision is similar when considering next-generation revenue management systems to replace aging patient accounting software, KLAS notes in "The New HIS Revenue Management - Is the Next Generation Patient Accounting Ready?"
The report evaluates many of the latest revenue management deployments and their associated return on investment.
"When evaluating revenue management solutions, healthcare providers are very interested in benefiting from advantages like integration and concurrent coding - advantages that are realized when the clinicals and financials are from the same vendor," said KLAS Chairman Kent Gale. "That's one reason why the early leaders in revenue management solutions are vendors that offer core clinical systems as well. There is also a huge bonus when the vendor solution covers both inpatient and ambulatory segments."
Among the vendors rated by KLAS, Epic Resolute Hospital Billing, an integrated solution, was the top-ranked revenue management product with a performance score of 86.8 out of 100, followed by QuadraMed Affinity Financials, a best-of-breed solution (86.0), and Meditech C/S Integrated Patient Accounting (75.5).
Next-generation revenue management deployments have displaced some existing third-party bolt-on applications but still have room to improve in areas such as eligibility, medical necessity or credit history checking, KLAS concludes. To date, revenue management implementations have replaced existing bolt-on applications in only a small percent of deployments.