Often attributed to Greek philosopher Heraclitus of Ephesus, the old adage “The only constant in life is change” certainly holds true in the world of healthcare and—by extension—the world of healthcare IT.
Every year since 1999, KLAS has published the annual Best in KLAS report, which details customer satisfaction with hundreds of healthcare software and services offerings used by healthcare delivery organizations, payer organizations, and employers. In that time, the healthcare IT industry has grown and evolved, and over the years, the Best in KLAS report has grown alongside it, taking different iterations to anticipate and meet the industry’s changing needs.
Below is a preview of some of the changes you’ll find in the upcoming 2025 Best in KLAS report, which publishes February 5 at 8 a.m. ET. We hope these updates prove to be valuable additions to the insights readers have come to expect from the Best in KLAS report.
Patient Accounting and Patient Management Solutions Now Measured in Tandem with Acute Care EHRs
In the past, when choosing a patient accounting and patient management solution, healthcare organizations may have considered a variety of vendors and products, including—but not limited to—the patient accounting solution from their EHR vendor. However, given the increased need for interoperability and standardization, most organizations have moved toward a more consolidated tech stack approach. Thus, when purchasing a patient accounting and patient management solution today, healthcare organizations rarely stray from choosing the solution offered by their EHR vendor.
Given this new reality and the close ties between EHRs and patient accounting solutions, KLAS has now combined the Acute Care EHR segment and Patient Accounting/Patient Management segment into one overarching segment titled Acute Care EHR and Patient Accounting. Readers will still be able to find performance details on the same vendors as before, but the measurements now more accurately reflect the way in which these systems are viewed by the healthcare organizations that use them.
In Addition to Most Improved Awards, Best in KLAS Report Now Highlights Vendors Who Have Achieved Significant Improvement
Amid the constant changes in the healthcare IT market, KLAS’ mission has always remained the same—to improve the world’s healthcare through insights, collaboration, and transparency. Notice that the core driver of this mission is improvement.
While the Best in KLAS report celebrates the top performers in each market segment, we also want to highlight the vendors whose customers have reported the most improvement since the last year’s report. To this end, we began several years ago to include “Most Improved” awards to recognize the most improved software product, services offering, and physician practice solution.
In addition to the Most Improved awards, the 2025 report will—for the first time—also include a list of all solutions that have seen a score improvement of at least 15% since last year’s report. While this recognition will not constitute an actual Best in KLAS award, it enables us to shine a light on all vendors who have made a real effort to improve the customer experience.
Note: To be considered for a Most Improved award, an offering must have been a ranked solution in both the current and previous year. However, solutions do not need to meet this requirement to be considered for the Significant Improvement recognition.
Market Energy Data Added to Select Segments to Indicate Which Vendors Are Seeing Purchase Energy and Growth
Select segments in the 2025 report will include a market energy indicator for each solution. The market energy indicator is based on KLAS’ Decision Insights data, which is gathered through interviews with current and potential customers and gauges which vendors in a given market segment are being replaced, considered, or purchased.
The indicator reflects how much momentum a vendor has in that segment, taking into account the frequency with which a vendor is seriously considered and replaced compared to what would be expected based on the number of vendors in the market and the number of decisions recorded. Vendors with more than double the expected number of considerations (with few losses) are listed as having high market energy.
This data will give organizations insights into their peers’ purchasing decisions and help guide their own efforts to choose the best vendor partner for their organization.
Same Mission, Updated Report
2025 will mark the twenty-seventh edition of the Best in KLAS report. Throughout the years, the goal of the Best in KLAS report has stayed consistent: to spark greater collaboration and transparency between healthcare IT vendors and firms and the healthcare, payer, and employer organizations that entrust them with their IT needs. We believe the changes to the 2025 report will help further this goal.
Check out the new changes when the report publishes on February 5 at 8 a.m. ET.
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