KLAS: AI, Market Consolidation Impact Patient Privacy Monitoring Vendor Trends

Patient privacy monitoring solutions help healthcare organizations manage privacy risks and detect unauthorized access to patient data, playing a crucial role in compliance and patient confidentiality. The latest report from KLAS Research identified trends in the patient privacy monitoring vendor space in 2023 as artificial intelligence (AI) and market consolidation continue to impact the industry.

KLAS researchers examined responses from healthcare professionals about the solutions their organizations use and how they measure up to six customer experience pillars – culture, operations, loyalty, product, relationship, and value. In addition, researchers gathered patient privacy monitoring-specific responses surrounding the impacts of AI on compliance and privacy programs.

AI and machine learning (ML) helped top vendors increase functionality and improve efficiency, KLAS noted. For example, 2023 Best in KLAS winner, Protenus, leveraged AI and is seeing improved customer satisfaction as a result.

“Respondents appreciate the vendor’s innovation and customer service, and those who highlight the benefits of AI say it significantly decreases manual work by reducing false positives and enabling users to focus on real cases and complete investigations faster,” the report noted.

“Additionally, respondents who previously used other patient privacy monitoring solutions note that their experience with Protenus is an improvement thanks to better vendor communication and more automation.”

While AI continues to drive improvements in this space, mergers and acquisitions have led to initial dips in customer satisfaction. For example, Imprivata acquired both FairWarning and SecureLink in the past few years, leading to changes in customer satisfaction.

“Customer satisfaction initially decreased post-acquisition due to lacking points of contact, insufficient vendor communication, untimely issue resolution, and nickel-and-diming for support and training (not previously a concern),” KLAS stated.

“Data storage costs from moving to the cloud are also noted as a dissatisfier. Due to these issues, some very dissatisfied customers have switched to other vendors. Since the initial decrease, customer satisfaction has steadily improved, and a few recently interviewed respondents note the FairWarning acquisition was smooth.”

Customer loyalty remains high with the Imprivata SecureLink Privacy Monitor due to its affordability, despite some post-acquisition challenges.

Small healthcare organizations using iatricSystems have seen stable performance, but organizations with more than 500 beds reported a different story. All three large customers interviewed reported dissatisfaction and plans to replace the solution due to noisy data and bugs. 

“Interviewed customers who are using the AI functionality say it helps them track multiple investigations and stay proactive,” the report added.

“Overall, several respondents say the technology and AI functionality are still maturing—users on the older version especially struggle with manual processes and too many false positives, making it difficult to identify true instances of inappropriate data access. Customers expect to receive fewer alerts as the AI functionality keeps learning, and those that have transitioned to the new version note that the usability has improved.”

All respondents reported some level of impact on patient privacy programs as a result of AI and ML capabilities, showing that these developments are here to stay. Trends in the patient privacy monitoring vendor arena show that while AI can help improve efficiency over time, merger and acquisition activity may temporarily slow down progress as organizations work to pool their resources.