How are the best in KLAS Health IT vendor rankings created?
KLAS Research conducts annual assessments of all types of healthcare information systems such as PACS, EMRs and cardiovascular information systems and ranks them. Questions always come up on how KLAS creates these rankings. To find out, Health Exec spoke with Bradley Hunter, the vice president for value-based care and core solutions at KLAS, at the 2023 Health Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS) meeting.
Hunter said KLAS conducts assessments with end users of various types of health IT systems in all areas of health informatics. From these surveys they create annual grades for which vendors are doing the best job of working with hospitals and delivering solutions the work well. These rankings are determined through a combination of quantitative and qualitative input from providers and payers who use the solutions. KLAS engages with approximately 30,000 providers annually to gather this feedback and maintains anonymity to ensure honest responses.
"So the feedback that we get from them is sometimes 'this is going really well and here's the reasons why.' Sometimes it's, 'this isn't going well and here's the reason why.' But when we allow people to be anonymous and they give us the real story of what's going on. And that's the best part about the feedback is this isn't sugarcoated, this isn't, I'm worried about someone looking over my shoulder. This is real and this is my actual experience. And that's why providers come to KLAS over and over, especially when they're making decisions. They want to know what's real," Hunter explained.
Vendors spend a lot of time trying to figure out how their customers feel about their products and how they can improve. Hunter said the KLAS data lays out provider concerns.
"Our mission at KLAS is to help the health IT vendors improve. So those vendors that work with KLAS, we take that aggregated feedback and share it back with the vendor and say, this is what's going well, but we don't spend a lot of time there.”
KLAS aims to help vendors improve by sharing aggregated feedback and suggestions for enhancement. Vendors' rankings can fluctuate based on their willingness to make improvements based on feedback. Occasionally, the fairness of feedback can be influenced by factors like outdated software versions, which vendors should address to maintain a competitive edge.
At HIMSS and other health IT conferences, vendors with the top rankings usually have their "Best in KLAS" rating posted prominently in their booths.
"So the KLAS rankings are such a big deal because KLAS doesn't come up with them. They are 100% from the providers and from the payers who are using the solutions, and they give both a quantitative and qualitative side to the ratings. So the aggregation of all of those conversations that we have and those quantitative ratings that they give, that's where the ratings come from. And then the rankings are based off of those aggregated ranks," Hunter said.
The relationship with providers is also give and take. KLAS gives the providers who speak with them access to all the data they collect.
Additionally, Hunter mentioned that KLAS is open to including unexpected or new vendors in their assessments as they gather more information about them. For end users, KLAS rankings provide valuable insights when making decisions about purchasing healthcare IT systems. They can access aggregated feedback from their peers, including rankings and anonymized comments, to gain a comprehensive understanding of a vendor's performance and customer satisfaction. Additionally, providers can reach out to KLAS for expert guidance when making decisions about IT system purchases, leveraging KLAS's subject matter experts to make informed choices.
Dave Fornell has covered healthcare for more than 17 years, with a focus in cardiology and radiology. Fornell is a 5-time winner of a Jesse H. Neal Award, the most prestigious editorial honors in the field of specialized journalism. The wins included best technical content, best use of social media and best COVID-19 coverage. Fornell was also a three-time Neal finalist for best range of work by a single author. He produces more than 100 editorial videos each year, most of them interviews with key opinion leaders in medicine. He also writes technical articles, covers key trends, conducts video hospital site visits, and is very involved with social media. E-mail: dfornell@innovatehealthcare.com