Surgery Solutions Offer Hospitals Wider Range of Capabilities

OREM, UT, February 03, 2011 (Press-News.org) Hospital usage of surgery management solutions has matured past basic charting and scheduling functionalities--which are currently nearing 90 percent adoption--to more advanced tools, according to a new report from KLAS.

KLAS' first surgery management study since 2007, "Surgery Management Study 2010: In Pursuit of Advanced Functionality" comprises interviews from 509 providers at 426 organizations. According to the report, hospitals have expanded use of surgery management functionalities in the last three years, though adoption of resource scheduling and nurse documentation modules has definitely slowed.

"These traditional functionalities still play a significant role in customer satisfaction," pointed out Mark Allphin, KLAS research director and author of the report. "Unibased, the top-ranked vendor in this report, has the highest strength rating and adoption for resource scheduling. However, use of surgery systems in less traditional areas is growing vigorously for revenue cycle management, materials/inventory management, patient tracking, and other capabilities--up by more than 20 percent in some cases."

The report also notes that, although some hospitals are switching to Cerner, Epic, and MEDITECH's surgery systems to take advantage of system-wide integration, the surgery market overall is not experiencing the same push for integration as the rest of the HIT world.

"More frequently than the EMR, surgery exchanges information with a hospital's materials management and patient financial systems. As a result, most hospitals do not feel as pressing a need to purchase their surgery system and core EMR from the same vendor. This opens the door for non-integrated surgery vendors, such as GE Healthcare, McKesson, Picis, SIS, and Unibased, to continue playing a major role in this market segment."

In "Surgery Management Study 2010: In Pursuit of Advanced Functionality," Unibased ranked highest with a score of 85.9 out of 100, followed by Epic (84.8) and MEDITECH (79.9). This report also highlights Cerner, GE, McKesson, Picis, and Surgical Information Systems (SIS).

For more information about the surgery management market, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of participating vendors, "Surgery Management Study 2010: In Pursuit of Advanced Functionality" is available to healthcare providers online for a significant discount off the standard retail price. To purchase, healthcare providers and vendors can visit www.KLASresearch.com/reports.

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 over 4500 hospitals and over 2500 clinics, KLAS delivers timely reports, trends, and statistics, which provide a solid overview of vendor performance in the industry. KLAS measures performance of software, professional services, and medical equipment vendors. For more information, go to www.KLASresearch.com, email marketing@KLASresearch.com, or call 1-800-920-4109 to speak with a KLAS representative. Follow KLAS on Twitter at www.twitter.com/KLASresearch.