While three-fourths of providers currently use some sort of clinical decision support (CDS) solution, more than half are using multiple solutions, which indicates there is still not one solution that is meeting all of providers’ needs, according to a Reaction Data survey.
Reaction Data, a market research firm focused on the healthcare and life sciences industries, surveyed 180 healthcare physicians to gauge adoption of clinical decision support systems. Thirty-one percent of respondents hold the title of chief medical officer and 13 percent are chief medical information officers (CMIO) and another 13 percent are quality directors. The remaining respondents were chief nursing officers (CNOs), clinical informatics directors, health information management directors and IT directors. The majority of participants (91 percent) come from acute facilities with just 9 percent from ambulatory facilities.
The survey examines the main use cases for clinical decision support and the major vendors in the space, both as a full functioning system, and those who contribute to the early stages of a full CDS strategy. Three-fourths of respondents (74 percent) reported that they currently use a clinical decision support system.
On the clinical side, the number one use case for clinical decision support is medication orders, with 30 percent of respondents reporting CDS for this purpose, followed by lab orders (24 percent) and medical imaging orders (20 percent).
Cerner currently holds about 25 percent of the CDS market, according to the report. EPSi (Allscripts) has a 14 percent market share, Epic has an 11 percent market share and Stanson Health has six percent of the market. Many other vendors holding about five percent market share, including Nuance, Premier, Truven (IBM), Elsevier, Zynx Health and NDSC (Change).
These survey results on the clinical side of CDS indicate that the majority of people turn to their EHR vendor to provide the support they need. “After moving past the larger EHR providers in the market, you see companies like Stanson Health who offer a full CDS start to show up.
The report findings also illustrate that most vendors are in the early stages of their CDS strategy, as only 12 percent of the vendors listed by respondents offer a full CDS solution. About half of respondents offer an electronic health record (EHR) solution and 37 percent offer CDS as a secondary component.
Just slightly more than half (55 percent) of respondents said they currently use multiple solutions or components for their CDS needs rather than one system. For example, a provider might use one solution for aiding in drug ordering, and another solution for their clinical needs.
Of those currently using multiple solutions about half of that group said they plan to continue using multiple solutions moving forward, which indicates that there still is not one solution that meets all of respondents’ CDS needs. Looking at future plans, about a quarter of respondents plan to standardize on one platform and another quarter of respondents said they are unsure what their organization’s plans are.
“With only a 9 percent replacement rate everyone seems to be staying put for the most part. From our commentary, it appears clinicians are either satisfied with their current vendor, or are just holding out until they find a solution that meets all (or close to all) of their needs,” the report authors wrote.
The report authors also note there is room for growth in the clinical CDS market. “Things like real-time data mining in connection with decision support can improve clinicians’ views of the usefulness of the product. Others feel it’s helpful, but only for training purposes, the idea being that as time goes on you start to derive the same conclusions as your CDS solution,” the report authors wrote.
