What Do Orgs Want in Patient Safety & Compliance Technology?

Functionality is the name of the game for patient safety and compliance technology vendors, with healthcare organizations foremost prioritizing technology functionality when making purchasing decisions, according to a recent KLAS report, which was received via email.

Functionality was the most mentioned reason an organization might consider a certain patient safety and compliance technology, with 43 percent of organizations consulting with KLAS saying as much.

Patient safety and compliance tools have long been a key part of a healthcare organization’s technology suites. The tools are usually used to help track patient safety events; they can enable event reporting and event analysis and even facilitate patient safety huddles among hospital staff. Solutions can also support credentialing and other regulatory compliance factors.

Healthcare organizations have prioritized patient safety, and therefore the tools that help support it, for some time, but the KLAS report authors suggested that interest in these tools have gotten renewed interest following the COVID-19 pandemic.

After all, the pandemic did illuminate patient safety pitfalls and was, in fact, a big ding against nearly a decade of progress in patient safety.

“For healthcare organizations, the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic underscored the importance of having a holistic and integrated solution for safety, risk, and compliance management,” the report authors said. “Purchase energy in this market is increasing as more organizations are looking for solutions to increase visibility into safety events and compliance, address potential risks, and enhance patient and staff safety.”

This latest report looked at 51 recent patient safety and compliance technology purchases validated with KLAS between May 2021 and May 2023. Particularly, the researchers investigated the factors that influenced purchasing decisions, finding that functionality was a top-box issue for providers.

Providers told KLAS that it’s important for a patient safety and compliance tool to have several capabilities, integration, and reporting and analytics functions. The researchers said many vendors are capable of that, but purchasers said they are particularly impressed with Performance Health Partners, Riskonnect, RLDatix, and symplr Midas Safety and Risk Solutions.

Customers of those vendors are more likely to use the tools more broadly across the organization, including on claims and insurance, compliance, and enterprise risk management.

Customers also said they like tools that are easy to use and can be customized to their needs, highlighting Origami Risk and Performance Health Partners as standouts.

Other key purchasing considerations included cost or affordability of the product, usability, solution flexibility, sales experience, enterprise solution, and support.

The report also looked into the vendors that healthcare organizations consider when purchasing or replacing their patient safety and compliance tools. Vendor RLDatix was the most widely considered tool both for organizations looking to get a new technology and those looking to repurchase a larger suite from the vendor. Riskonnect was the next most widely considered vendor, followed by Origami Risk, Performance Health Partners, symplr, and VigiLanz.

RLDatix was also the most likely to be an organization’s final or most likely choice in the vendor selection process. If an organization did choose another vendor of RLDatix, they said it was because another vendor was more customizable, had better integration capabilities, and could provide custom risk-scoring analysis. Smaller organizations also remarked on the high price tag for RLDatix.

Origami Risk and Riskonnect were both popular among midsize and larger acute care hospitals largely because both vendors provide good patient safety reporting features, customers said. KLAS said some providers, particularly smaller ones, forego the solutions due to cost.

Instead, small and midsized providers tended to select Performance Health Partners, which KLAS pointed out is chosen as often as it is considered. Organizations told KLAS that the system is easy to use, has a simple layout, and is customizable. Notably, Performance Health Partners has a competitive price point, which the researchers said makes it a standout.