Many Hospitals Use Document Management and Imaging as a Stepping Stone to Electronic Records

    OREM, UT, October 21, 2009 /24-7PressRelease/ -- As healthcare reform and meaningful use put the focus on electronic medical records (EMRs), many hospitals are looking to document management and imaging (DMI) solutions to ease the transition from paper records to electronic. A new report from KLAS explores the crowded landscape for DMI solutions.

The KLAS report, "Enterprise DMI: Finding the Right Stepping Stone to Full EMR", evaluates the DMI solutions of 14 vendors, based on the feedback of their customers. While the study acknowledges that DMI - which provides scanning, indexing and archiving of paper records - is becoming less critical in advanced organizations, the vast majority of hospitals are still crossing the chasm between paper and a full EMR, and many are using a DMI solution to ease the jump.

Unlike many clinical software markets, DMI is a segment that is dominated by best-of-breed vendors and not the traditional large EMR companies. Among those large core clinical vendors, only McKesson's DMI solution was rated above average by providers, although Siemens' solution was also praised for strong functionality and workflow features. Other enterprise vendors, such as Cerner, Eclipsys and MEDITECH, have been criticized for offering DMI solutions that have functional deficiencies and inconsistent support.

According to the KLAS report, best-of-breed vendors MedPlus and Hyland are the clear leaders in DMI. "Both Hyland and MedPlus provide successful solutions for almost any size organization," said Steve Van Wagenen, KLAS research director and author of the DMI study. "And their customer satisfaction scores remain strong regardless of the organization's EMR."

Among the DMI vendor solutions highlighted in the KLAS report, MedPlus ChartMaxx earned the highest KLAS performance score (88.2 out of 100), followed by Hyland Software OnBase (86.8) and Perceptive Software ImageNow (83.3). Overall, the DMI market segment features some of the highest satisfaction scores of any of the categories KLAS tracks. In the company's "2008 Top 20 Best in KLAS Awards: Software & Professional Services" report, DMI was the second highest-rated market segment for customer satisfaction, behind only enterprise scheduling software.

Other vendors highlighted in the KLAS report include 3M, Alpha Systems, BlueWare, Cerner, CGI, DB Technology, McKesson, MEDITECH, QuadraMed, Siemens and Streamline Health.

To learn more about the DMI market, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of participating vendors, the report "Enterprise DMI: Finding the Right Stepping Stone to Full EMR" is available to healthcare providers online for a significant discount off the standard retail price. To purchase the full report, healthcare providers and vendors can visit www.KLASresearch.com/reports.

About KLAS

KLAS is a research firm specializing in monitoring and reporting the performance of healthcare vendors. KLAS' mission is to improve delivery, by independently measuring vendor performance for the benefit of our healthcare provider partners, consultants, investors and vendors. Working together with executives from more than 4,500 hospitals and over 2,500 clinics, KLAS delivers timely reports, trends and statistics, which provide a solid overview of vendor performance in the industry. KLAS measures the performance of software, professional services and medical equipment vendors. For more information, go to www.KLASresearch.com, email [email protected] or call 1-800-920-4109 to speak with a KLAS representative.

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