KLAS: RIS gains ground through interoperability, functionality
While RIS purchases traditionally have taken a back seat to EMR and PACS decisions, new products entering the RIS market and vendors expanding their EMR and PACS client bases with integrated technologies suggest that RIS are taking a renewed priority in purchasing decisions and being included in discussions surrounding meaningful use’s electronic information exchange requirements, according to a report from market research firm KLAS.
According to the report, RIS decisions are being pulled in three different directions depending on the facility’s priorities: an integrated RIS/EMR strategy where data are housed on a common clinical platform, an integrated RIS/PACS for the imaging department or a feature-rich standalone RIS capable of being implemented and interfaced within the existing environment.
“End users may feel they have to sacrifice a certain level of functionality and customization in order to get enterprise integration,” said report author Ben Brown. “Often operational tools such as scheduling and procedural reporting are strong, but high-end functionality that aids radiologists and administrators with management reporting and analyzing patient information can be lacking.”
Community hospitals and ambulatory organizations tend to be a mixed bag of standalone technologies, integrated RIS/PACS and integrated RIS/EMR. Several RIS vendors have tailored their offerings to the needs of this target market. Clinic decisions tend be dominated by the radiology department and lean more towards the PACS/RIS integration with deeper operational functionality for radiologists, KLAS found.
The survey said that 63 percent of respondents indicate their RIS has necessary functionality currently, but providers list four key functionality items on their RIS wish-list. Included on that list are management reporting tools, flexible scheduling, rollout of promised mammography tools and critical test results management functionality.
Among the 23 RIS technologies tracked in the KLAS report, Epic Systems' Radiant ranked number one for large hospitals (200+ beds) with an overall performance score of 82 out of 100. Siemens Healthcare’s syngo Workflow and McKesson’s Radiology Manager ranked second and third, respectively. Avreo's interWORKS and NovaRad's NovaRIS tied for the highest score (83.3) in the community hospital market segment with GE Healthcare’s Centricity RIS-IC taking the third highest ranked position.
For ambulatory RIS systems, Fujifilm Medical Systems’ Synapse Information System was the highest ranked system with an overall score of 87.8, followed by Swearingen Software’s RISynergy in second place and MedInformatix’ RIS in third.
According to the report, RIS decisions are being pulled in three different directions depending on the facility’s priorities: an integrated RIS/EMR strategy where data are housed on a common clinical platform, an integrated RIS/PACS for the imaging department or a feature-rich standalone RIS capable of being implemented and interfaced within the existing environment.
“End users may feel they have to sacrifice a certain level of functionality and customization in order to get enterprise integration,” said report author Ben Brown. “Often operational tools such as scheduling and procedural reporting are strong, but high-end functionality that aids radiologists and administrators with management reporting and analyzing patient information can be lacking.”
Community hospitals and ambulatory organizations tend to be a mixed bag of standalone technologies, integrated RIS/PACS and integrated RIS/EMR. Several RIS vendors have tailored their offerings to the needs of this target market. Clinic decisions tend be dominated by the radiology department and lean more towards the PACS/RIS integration with deeper operational functionality for radiologists, KLAS found.
The survey said that 63 percent of respondents indicate their RIS has necessary functionality currently, but providers list four key functionality items on their RIS wish-list. Included on that list are management reporting tools, flexible scheduling, rollout of promised mammography tools and critical test results management functionality.
Among the 23 RIS technologies tracked in the KLAS report, Epic Systems' Radiant ranked number one for large hospitals (200+ beds) with an overall performance score of 82 out of 100. Siemens Healthcare’s syngo Workflow and McKesson’s Radiology Manager ranked second and third, respectively. Avreo's interWORKS and NovaRad's NovaRIS tied for the highest score (83.3) in the community hospital market segment with GE Healthcare’s Centricity RIS-IC taking the third highest ranked position.
For ambulatory RIS systems, Fujifilm Medical Systems’ Synapse Information System was the highest ranked system with an overall score of 87.8, followed by Swearingen Software’s RISynergy in second place and MedInformatix’ RIS in third.