KLAS: New Wave of PACS Replacements is Coming

Nearly one in six hospitals and health systems over 1,000 beds reported that they have plans to replace their picture archiving and communication system (PACS), according to a new KLAS report that indicates that a new wave of replacements is ahead.

“These large hospitals and health systems are seeking more innovative technology and deeper strategic partnerships for imaging,” said Ben Brown, KLAS medical imaging general manager. “I think that the industry will see a wave of replacements starting in the largest hospitals that will eventually sweep over smaller hospitals as well.”

Providers report that their vendors, for the most part, are performing very well in the PACS market, according to KLAS, with most either maintaining or improving on customer satisfaction since last year. DR Systems, Philips, Carestream, McKesson, and Fuji customers are the most excited about their current solution-and are more likely to recommend their PACS to another facility than users of other systems, the report found. In large hospitals, Cerner, Sectra, GE PACS-IW, Siemens, and Agfa customers report that they are more likely to say they have plans to move on.

Not only are providers looking at performance within radiology when making selections, but they also are examining how well PACS vendors work with their EMR. In the study, KLAS found that Allscripts sites work well with Sectra and Cerner sites work well with Fuji PACS. Epic shops have good success with both McKesson and Philips PACS. McKesson EHR hospitals work nicely with Fuji PACS as well as DR Systems. Meditech shops succeed with many vendors, including DR Systems, McKesson, Philips Fuji, Sectra and Merge. Siemens PACS typically performs well with Siemens Invision/Soarian sites.

“PACS vendors need to be savvy enough to talk with a CIO about things that matter at the hospital or health system level, such as scalability, interoperability, and accessibility,” Brown said.

PACS Market Replacement Vulnerability (courtesy KLAS)

 

*Acute care organizations only, not including long-term care or psyche hospitals.
**The "In Play" rate is defined as the percentage of organizations reporting that their current PACS product is not part of their long-term plans.