KLAS Report: Providers Expectations Run High for Outpatient Pharmacy Systems

OREM, UT, March 09, 2011 (Press-News.org) Increasingly, providers expect outpatient pharmacy systems to provide additional revenue and meaningful use benefits; however, finding the best system for a given organization can be a challenge, according to a new report by KLAS.

The first KLAS study to focus on outpatient pharmacy, "Outpatient Pharmacy Goes Retail: A Paradigm Shift for Providers" contains interviews from more than 100 health care professionals conducted over the last nine months. KLAS opened this new research segment in response to providers' increased interest in and expectations of these systems.

"Providers demand more from their outpatient pharmacy systems than ever before," said Coray Tate, KLAS research director and author of the report. "They see these systems as a way to save money on employee health costs and as a source of badly-needed revenue. And as accountable-care organizations loom on the horizon, outpatient pharmacy is now viewed as an important part of the continuum of care."

The report identified several obstacles complicating providers' search for an outpatient pharmacy system. First, though numerous options exist, few are widely implemented in the health system setting; this makes it difficult for providers to identify a comparable site to reference as they consider their options.

"The larger an organization is, the more complex its needs will be, and the harder it will be for a vendor to fulfill those needs. In fact, on average, health systems with over 500 beds rated vendors nearly 10 points lower than smaller organizations," Tate explained. "The reverse is also true: Systems targeting larger organizations may not be suitable for smaller ones. McKesson EnterpriseRx, for example, scored six points lower on average in organizations with fewer than 500 beds."

Two outpatient pharmacy products were ranked in "Outpatient Pharmacy Goes Retail: A Paradigm Shift for Providers." The higher-scoring of the pair, QS/1 NRx, earned 78.4 points out of 100, and Cerner Etreby came in second, at 66.7. This report also documented early trends for Cerner Millenium, HBS, McKesson, PCSI, and ScriptPro pharmacy systems.

For more information about the outpatient pharmacy market, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of participating vendors, "Outpatient Pharmacy Goes Retail: A Paradigm Shift for Providers" 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.