The majority of healthcare IT leaders at provider organizations want a single enterprise analytics solution as their organizations move forward with analytics initiatives, according to a Peer60 survey report.
Additionally, an analysis of the analytics vendor market indicates that the short-term replacement market for data visualization and enterprise analytics solutions is large and it is likely there will be large shifts in the analytics market in the next few years, the survey findings concluded.
The Peer60 report examines the healthcare data analytics solution market and polled 200 hospital leaders, including IT directors, CIOs, decision support analysts, quality directors, operations leadership, and clinical informatics leadership. The survey also examined the electronic health records (EHR) and revenue cycle management solutions used by the survey participants. A full quarter of respondents use Cerner for their EHR systems, followed by Epic at 20 percent, Meditech at 14 percent and Allscripts at 11 percent. For revenue cycle management solutions, 18 percent use Epic, 18 percent use Cerner, 17 percent use Meditech, followed by Allscripts at 9 percent and McKesson at 9 percent.
There are a number of areas that are critical to improving healthcare outcomes, such as coordinating care and managing patient populations, and these areas all require robust analytics solutions. The majority of healthcare provider respondents seem to be on the same page about why data collection and utilization is so critical, as 91 percent cited coordinating care as an area that required data collection and utilization, followed by managing patient populations (89 percent). The respondents also cited helping individual providers, resource management, managing risk, patient engagement and increasing revenue as areas of focus that require data analytics capabilities.
The survey examined providers’ current approach to collect and analyze data. The survey findings indicate that while providers are more likely to use a best-of-breed approach in developing their analytics platform, this is still a mixed bag. Just under half (43 percent) currently employ a multiple vendor approach, with just under a quarter (22 percent) cobbling together some sort of homegrown strategy. The smallest group (20 percent) feel that they are on their way towards an overall enterprise strategy, which suggests that there is not a one-size-fits-all solution to effectively gather and analyze data. Ten percent of hospitals stated they have no strategy whatsoever for dealing with their data.
Additionally, the survey findings indicate that the larger organizations (with more budget, more IT staff, and typically more operational complexity) have the highest instances of utilizing an enterprise approach to analyzing their data, and ambulatory organizations came in a close second. However, according to the report authors, it was for the opposite reasons; “these organizations have much more straightforward operational and clinical environments than hospitals, so standardizing on fewer vendors is an intuitive strategy.”
The survey delved into what respondents’ saw as the ideal approach for the collection, utilization, and analysis of data. The majority of participants stated that enterprise analytics is the preferred approach moving forward. Of those currently using a multiple vendor, best-of-breed approach, 69 percent indicated the ideal data analytics configuration was an enterprise, single vendor approach.
Additionally, half of providers currently a homegrown analytics approach plan to adopt a commercially available data analytics solution, with 14 percent planning to move from homegrown to commercial solutions in the next six to 12 months, 14 percent planning to do so in the next 12 to 18 months and 43 percent planning to transition in two years.
Among the provider organizations currently with no analytics solutions, the vast majority (84 percent) have plans to make a purchase and 80 percent of the majority will do so within the next two years. Additionally, 93 percent of these respondents plan to work with enterprise suppliers.
And, the survey findings demonstrate that these opinions do vary depending upon the title of the participant, size of their hospital organization, and the EHR and revenue cycle management solutions they use. For example, decision support analysts showed a significant lack of support for an enterprise solution.
“In particular, the lack of support for an enterprise solution among the analyst grouping is significant. It suggests that the idea of a single enterprise solution inherently makes sense to c-levels who, by the very nature of their respective roles, are forced to consider the bigger picture, while for “analysts” who live in data all day, their main focus is simply the best tool at hand to do their specific job,” the report authors wrote.
The survey also analyzed the replacement markets for several segments of the data analytics market, notably data visualization (dashboards), data warehousing, consulting services and enterprise analytics. According to the report, only one or two vendors in these segments are noticeably ahead of the competition in terms of satisfying their customers, and this portends a major shift in market share over the next few years.
The short-term replacement market for data visualization and enterprise analytics in particular is large (more than 20 percent each).
Within the data warehouse market, Microsoft, Oracle and Meditech have the largest shares of the market at 18 percent, 16 percent and 11 percent, respectively. And, the market for switching data warehouses is relatively modest with an 8 percent replacement market.
Looking at the data analytics consulting market, nearly half of healthcare providers participating in the survey use consulting firms with an analytics practice. The Advisory Board controls a commanding presence with 38 percent market share. The survey findings also indicate that the EHR supplier a hospital has installed actually makes a definite impact on the consulting firm chosen to assist in its analytics programs.
“The Advisory Board appears to do better with some EHR suppliers than with others. While 40 percent of Allscripts customers use it, that number drops significantly with Cerner and Meditech,” the report authors wrote.
The survey findings indicate that providers are using a wide range of enterprise analytics suppliers—defined as one vendor supplying dashboards, a data warehouse and in some cases consulting services— with SAP, Cerner and Epic each capturing a 14 percent market share. The “other” category comprised 43 percent and included companies such as The Advisory Board, Arcadia Healthcare Solutions, Health Catalyst, IBM, McKesson, NextGen and HCI.
And the survey results also show that, even though the enterprise analytics market is still emerging, the replacement market is already heating up. Twenty percent of survey participants stated that they are actively looking for a new offering. “No individual vendor appears primed to snap up serious market share as of yet. Instead, Cerner, Microsoft, IMAT, Intersystems, and Premier are each claiming a small chunk of the mindshare,” the report authors wrote.
