Enterprise Imaging Strategies Progressed for Two-Thirds of Orgs

By Samantha McGrail

January 14, 2020 - Enterprise imaging aims to align provider departments, priorities, and technologies to drive key clinical outcomes. Out of 113 organizations taking part in enterprise imaging, 69 percent have seen progress with their enterprise imaging strategies since 2018, according to a recent KLAS report.

New service lines, vendor neutral archives (VNAs), and universal viewers are all helping healthcare organizations progress with enterprise imaging, KLAS reported. Additionally, the creation or acquisition of more sites (e.g., hospitals and image centers) are supporting enterprise imaging strategies by adding more technology.

But while advanced healthcare organizations are stabilizing and evaluating their future enterprise imaging technology needs, according to KLAS, other organizations are struggling. One-fifth of organizations surveyed by KLAS said their enterprise imaging progress either stalled or regressed in the past 12 to 18 months, and that was largely because of funding gaps, industry consolidation, poor internal alignment, and weak vendor partners, they said.

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KLAS reported that internal strategy is key to progressing with an enterprise imaging strategy.

Although vendors play a vital role, organizations whose progress has stalled or regressed believed poor communication, executive buy-in, IT support, and vision hindered their success regardless of vendor partners.

But getting the internal enterprise imaging strategy in line can significantly improve outcomes for the organization, KLAS found. For example, increased VNA and universal viewer use drove increases in clinical productivity.

In the report, 89 percent of organizations had both VNA and a universal viewer, which was an increase from 55 percent in 2018. Access to images through VNA and a universal viewer is up nearly 20 percent from 2018, with the most reported progress from the universal viewer side.

Electronic medical record (EMR) integration was also vital for proven outcomes in access to relevant images, physician productivity, patient care collaboration, and data management, KLAS reported.

Enterprise imaging vendors driving success

While improving an internal enterprise imaging strategy is key to success, vendors are also partnering with healthcare organizations to advance strategy and drive success for their clients, KLAS found.

On average, healthcare organizations rated the strategic contributions from their enterprise imaging vendors as a 7.3 out of nine points.

Of the eight vendors analyzed, KLAS found that Client Outlook and Philips’ Carestream team provided the most strategic contribution to the enterprise imaging process. Both vendors received 8.1 points.

Other enterprise imaging vendors receiving top marks from their clients included Visage Imaging’s universal viewer (7.7 points), Agfa HealthCare (7.6 points), Watson Health Imaging’s Merge (7.2 points), and Fujifilm (7.1 points).

As for vendor impact on various operational areas, governance, workflow, and roadmap saw average improvement across the board, with a few vendors hitting below average.

VNA and universal viewers also helped most providers improve in areas such as data management, patient-care coordination, physician productivity, and image access. While some organizations had limited data, Watson Health Imaging, Hyland, Fujifilm, and GE Healthcare all received positive feedback in improvement.

Across the industry, adoption of additional service lines is growing and all vendors in the report have been validated as expanding outside of the mainstays of enterprise imaging to areas such as OR, ophthalmology, and OB/ GYN.

Virtualization News

Enterprise Imaging Strategies Progressed for Two-Thirds of Orgs

A new report from KLAS analyzes strategies to understand enterprise imaging progress and show how healthcare provider organizations and vendors contribute to that progress.

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