KLAS released an 82-page long survey report recently titled, “Changing Market Leads to Volatility among Large- to Small-Volume Organizations”. The survey surprisingly revealed that over 30% of the PASC users are searching for a replacement of late.
The survey included 368 PACS users of the provider’s organization. There were undoubtedly plenty of aspects and facts that got surfaced through the survey. However, one of the key takeaways was almost 33% of the imaging departments and groups were considering a PACS vendor change.
The executive report of the KLAS report summed up that the market of the USA is up and ready for a change. Almost all of them are expecting to join hands with a new vendor to help the company’s imaging strategy flourish.
KLAS strategically categorized the reviews of the customers of PACS into two parts – reviews from large providers and small providers.
By large providers, the team meant organizations processing more than 300,000 imaging every year. On the flip side, small organizations had the capacity of processing less than 300,000 imaging annually.
Evens, Odds of PACS Enterprises and Their Offerings
According to the analysis, persistent PACS providers like Sectra have retained their grasp in the market with a long list of satisfied end customers from both categories – large and small.
The survey team further noted that all the Sectra customers considered the technology used by Sectra to be intuitive, advanced, and customizable. Besides Sectra, there were also a few more names, worth mentioning, included in this report.
- Agfa HealthCare
Agfa is already a renowned and reliable name in the market. Most of its customers have faith that the enterprise will launch more advanced features in the coming years. Many customers are looking forward to the time when Agfa will deliver the functionalities it had promised to its customers during its launch.
- Change Healthcare
Change Healthcare has also been one of the most dependable names in the market for both large and small customers. Customers think that Change Healthcare caters to customers with an easy-to-use, scalable, and reliable PACS.
However, a few customers have also expressed their grievances about the slow development of on-site solutions. Change Healthcare currently concentrates more on cloud management which might have led to this shortcoming.
- Fujifilm
Customers of large and small volumes generally praise the functional efficiency of Synapse. They consider the process flexible, and user-friendly.
However, some large-scale operators have complained about its adequacy and suggested upgrading Synapse’s functionalities for large-scale sites. According to some discontent customers, unmet timelines of technology upgrades are one of the reasons they intend to change their vendor.
- GEHealthcare
Of all the renowned PACS providers, GE Healthcare seems to have the most vulnerable position in the market as of now. The researchers found that several customers of GE are planning to leave its services and switch to another.
However, given the considerable market share the company enjoys, there also remain a few customers who are content with its PACS technology. Nonetheless, almost every customer agreed on one point GE’s PACS technology feels old and it needs an immediate upgrade.
- Philips
Philips Vue PACs is a renowned name among small and mid-volume operators. The technology performs efficiently in this domain.
Customers find it stable, easy to use, and extremely useful for radiologists. However, for the large volume operators, the experience seems to be somewhat different. They find the technology inconsistent, buggy, and unstable.
Apart from these PACS providers who snatched the spotlight in the KLAS report, there were other vendors like Infinitt, Konica Minolta, Intelerad, Novarad, and Merative present in it as well.
PACS Is Still the Preferred Choice Over EI
Monique Rasband is the VP of imaging of oncology and cardiology and one of the authors of the PACS report. Rasband spoke with Radiology Business this fall regarding the radiology informatics trends.
To the question that how probable she thinks the switch of vendors could be, she answered that no clear signs are yet present to infer positively. In simple words, Rasband clarified that she does not think that a switch of vendors favoring the upcoming enterprises is imminent.
She further added that the purchasing pattern still holds in favor of PACS. According to her, the legacy systems and the aging system are getting replaced fast and there exists a lot of energy and buzz around the PACS environment.
She mentioned while answering Dave Fornell, a reporter that the stir around PACS might look as if a switch trend is on its way, but it is not.
She also remarked that comparing the numbers is not always the right way to look at the popularity of a particular technology like PACS. The time needed for replacing the legacy system can be different.
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