A first-of-its-kind KLAS report released Thursday examined the state of the market regarding safety, risk and compliance management. Many organizations, said the research and analytics firm, are increasingly interested in taking a broad, enterprise approach.  

"More than half of interviewed organizations say they use or plan to use an enterprise solution for safety, risk and compliance management," said the report. However, researchers said, "There is still significant room for growth."  

WHY IT MATTERS

KLAS researchers found that RLDatix and symplr Midas – formerly known as Conduent – have the biggest market shares. Acute-care organizations often rely on them for multiple areas of safety, risk and compliance.  

According to KLAS, RLDatix customers say functionality is strong and improved accountability, decision-making and efficiency.

RLDatix has been steadily building up its repertoire when it comes to patient safety and risk mitigation, having acquired the Quantros SRM tool suite in 2019 and Verge Health in 2020.  

"Across all products, clients want more communication and guidance about RLDatix’s road map – including future plans for the acquired products and the long-term development strategy for RL6," the company's product in North America.  

Symplr Midas, meanwhile, is one of the most longstanding solutions in the safety and risk management market.  Here, too, users say they want more: "While Midas was once seen as one of the best solutions in the market, some respondents say it has grown difficult to use and lacks some functionality."  

Meanwhile, Origami Risk and Performance Health Partners have strong relationships with client organizations – and VigiLanz, though very new to the scene, is reportedly great at listening to client needs, but needs improvement when it comes to interfacing and workflow efficiency, according to the report.

Riskonnect has robust functionality, but suffers from implementation challenges and a lack of training, say KLAS researchers.

Overall, researchers noted that healthcare organizations have started to pursue more unified platforms when it comes to safety, risk and compliance needs. These areas can include privacy and HIPAA compliance, employee health and safety, enterprise risk management, patient and visitor safety, patient experience and relations, provider management and performance, and risk management for claims.   

Still, said KLAS, "​​even organizations that report using an enterprise approach tend to use their vendor for no more than three or four areas out of seven total."

THE LARGER TREND  

Although "risk management" often refers to protection against cyberattacks these days, patient safety issues can also come from within hospital walls.  

For instance, the ECRI Institute's annual report on patient safety issues has flagged device best practices (or lack thereof), alert fatigue and diagnostic stewardship as pressing concerns.  

ON THE RECORD  

"Today, enterprise adoption is too limited to examine customer satisfaction in these settings specifically; as adoption grows, KLAS will continue to share insights on organizations’ experiences, including scaling an enterprise approach in larger organizations," said researchers.

Kat Jercich is senior editor of Healthcare IT News.
Twitter: @kjercich
Email: kjercich@himss.org
Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.