Are We Making Intelligent Health IT Decisions?

I am part of a US based, 24 hospital IDN based in the Midwest.  We make many imaging purchases every year.  Information on which vendor and model are selected and which are not is recorded and trended. Most decisions are made at the local entity with input from the system.  We use this information to negotiate better pricing with any particular vendors that we favor.

Although we have a larger sample area then a standalone hospital, we do not have the level of resources that are leveraged by KLAS.  When KLAS releases an Imaging Modality report, it is a great resource to verify if our organization is trending in the same direction as others.

We focus mainly on purchasing trends and service.  If our internal trends mimic that of the KLAS report, we feel we are moving in a positive direction.  If they do not, we take a deep look at the decisions we have made.  Are we missing out on an opportunity that other organizations are taking advantage of?  Is one vendor providing a specific technology that our chosen vendor is not?

This kind of information is invaluable and allows an organization to make changes in their course without having to wait many years to find out that they made a poor decision.  Every day we hear the same story from every vendor about why their product is the best and things that their competitor are unable to do.  With the KLAS report, I feel you get the opinion of the industry--not a vendor’s sales pitch.

In one specific case, we were receiving what we felt was bad service from a particular vendor; however, when we referenced the KLAS Imaging Modality report, the vendor was rated extremely high for service. With this information in hand, we reached out to the vendor and explained that our experience did not seem to match what KLAS was hearing from our peers.

This ultimately resolved the underlying issue that was causing the problem. If it were not for the KLAS report, we may have shifted away from that vendor due to the perception of bad service.

Benjamin Stock
CES Director of Clinical Equipment Planning and Support
SSM Health, Missouri