Navigating the new PACS market

May 21, 2010

10:29 AM

This study, conducted by independent research firm KLAS, measures PACS vendor performance in the Acute Care, Community, and Ambulatory markets. KLAS gathered more than 1,600 product interviews from healthcare providers. Over a quarter of respondents are PACS administrators in their organizations, and over 30% of respondents are involved in radiology management within their organizations.

(Click any of the images in this slideshow to expand them to full size).

Overall Vendor Performance

The top choices for PACS replacements are McKesson, Philips, and GE Centricity whereas Merge, Siemens, eRAD, and Emageon are noted as having the highest level of replacement vulnerability when compared to cohorts. Community PACS rankings have seen major shifts since KLAS' last community PACS report, released in November 2008. Furthermore, PACS vendors are in hot competition to serve community hospitals and ambulatory imaging centers, cutting costs in order to offer a tempting deal to providers looking to upgrade their PACS.

PACS Vendors Most Vulnerable to Replacement

This graph represents the percentage of client respondents that indicate their product is not part of their long-term plans. A director of radiology informatics at an academic medical center stated, "We plan to go shopping for a new PACS with an easy migration path and lower costs." KLAS noted that this attitude has become increasingly common, indicating the possibility of a surge in PACS replacement. Providers are concerned about expensive upgrades and contract renewals, leading them to reevaluate their current PACS vendors. Quality issues and poor support are other reasons cited for PACS replacement.

PACS Products Rated by KLAS

High-volume environments, hospitals with 100-200 beds, is a strong market for Agfa, AMICAS, Carestream, DR Systems, Fuji, GE, McKesson, Philips, Sectra, and Siemens. Hospitals with less than 100 beds tend to favor AMICAS, Aspyra, Avreo, BRIT, Infinitt, NovaRad, and Sectra for their lower up-front costs and easy maintenance for organizations with limited IT resources.

Most Mentioned PACS Vendors in EI

Providers looking for enterprise imaging (EI) strategies favor McKesson, Philips, and GE. Both GE and Philips emerge as solid single-vendor radiology/cardiology imaging solutions offering enterprise archives, while McKesson corners the market for easy-to-use technology with Horizon Medical Imaging and Horizon Cardiology. KLAS concluded that vendors offering solid EI solutions are poised to come out ahead in replacement deals.