KLAS: Client Adoption Varies Across Clinical Communication Platforms

Health IT vendors can help drive strong customer adoption of clinical communication platforms, according to a KLAS report. 

PerfectServe Telmediq and Stryker Vocera Platform have made the most progress in consistently meeting clients’ communication needs. PerfectServe Telmediq customers noted that the vendor works to understand their current workflows and build interfaces and functionality that closely align.

Stryker Vocera Platform customers noted that the solution’s broad capabilities can address specific communication challenges. Some customers pointed out that close involvement from the vendor helps align the technology with their communication strategy.

TigerConnect clients said the easy-to-deploy, HIPAA-compliant messaging solution meets their needs. KLAS noted that this share of customers had deployed the fewest workflows and interfaces. Customers that implemented more workflows mentioned the vendor’s versatility in helping organizations with different communication goals and use cases.

symplr respondents also mentioned less-comprehensive deployments but said the vendor is willing to collaborate. Customers sometimes cited cost as a reason they have not deployed additional interfaces or workflows.

Interviewed Oracle Health (Cerner) and Baxter (Voalte) clients have implemented the most interfaces and workflows.

The limited number of interviewed Baxter (Voalte) customers said they appreciate the robust technology. However, they mentioned a rocky relationship with the vendor. Clients reported that the vendor has not always clearly communicated the road map following its multiple acquisitions, resulting in doubts about Baxter’s ability to support communication strategies.

Organizations have varying goals when rolling out a communication platform. For instance, it could enable communication for nurses, physicians, or all types of employees. Therefore, there is variation in how many of their hospitals they roll it out to (defined by KLAS as “breadth”) or how many of their employees they roll it out to (defined as “depth”).

PerfectServe respondents (limited data) reported the deepest adoption. Customers said the vendor has driven adoption by offering enterprise licenses and developing workflows for ORs, patient registration, scheduling, and call centers.

Stryker Edge respondents (limited data) reported the highest average number of exchanged messages. The solution exchanges data bidirectionally with EHRs. Respondents said the comprehensive rollout facilitates easy adoption and cross-departmental communication.

Baxter (Voalte) clients (limited data) are often large organizations with adoption across several departments. Respondents said the vendor collaborates with customers to help drive deep adoption among nurses. Clients also noted that the out-of-the-box solution makes it easy to quickly deploy additional functionality without needing to work with third parties.

TigerConnect also has several large customers that highlighted the solution’s easy messaging, even in non-clinical environments.

Epic respondents, mostly large health systems, reported deploying the solution to the highest percentage of hospitals. Since Epic integrated the product into the EHR, many customers have implemented the solution enterprise-wide, especially to leverage its EHR integration and telehealth workflows.

However, customers must use third-party solutions for certain functionality Epic doesn’t currently provide, such as nurse calls, middleware, and PBX/VoIP. Clients also mentioned the need to build rules and permissions within Hyperspace for non-clinicians. These limitations keep many Epic customers from rolling out the solution to a higher share of employees.

Oracle Health (Cerner) respondents (limited data) report that the solution’s unwieldiness makes it difficult to adopt broadly.

CareAware Connect is separate from Oracle Health’s EHR. Customers often deploy it departmentally. There are downtime reports, and some respondents want the vendor to address various workflow issues, including a lack of role-based messaging.