Epic Rated #2!

© 2014 by H.I.S. Professionals, LLC, all rights reserved.

By Vince Ciotti

A Real Shocker!• If you’ve been following HIS vendor ratings from firms like Black

Book and KLAS, this story may come as a real shock. Epic has been consistently rated #1 for so long in so many categories (EHRs, service, implementations, etc.), that when they finally make “only” second place it’s real news. So here’s the scoop:

• Just who can you trust in these days of mass marketing and vendor “relationships.” Who really tells the truth when it comes to the source of information, true objectivity, and honest communication of research findings?

• Well, HIStalk is relying upon a source that has never had a single critic or complaint about its objectivity and candor: CLAS• (Ciotti’s Latest Attempted Satire)

Germane Product• So what application or service is CLAS reviewing? Rather than re-

hash products that have reported on to death, like EHRs and revenue cycle systems, or generic categories like service and implementation, CLAS decided to review a product that touches nearly every user as intimately as their very fingers and lips:

• You got it: coffee cups, a product that we all use directly every single day. A product that does not apply only to giant AMCs or tiny CAHs, but one that every healthcare & vendor worker user uses daily.

• If you were at HIMSS last year, you probably received a number of these giveaways from various vendors, and use them frequently.

The Contenders• So what are the leading contenders when it comes to HIS industry

coffee cups? CLAS picked two of the best-known names in Healthcare Information Systems for its comparison, to whit:

• If you stopped by the HIStalk booth at HIMSS last year, Lorre probably presented you with on of these gems, festooned with typical headlines Mr. HIStalk reports on in his daily blog, (in)famous for his candor and sometimes scathingly honest comments.

• And if you ever visited Verona, WI, especially in this past few seasons of “Polar Vortexes,” you imbibed some coffee or tea in one of these epic mugs in a vain attempt to thaw out your frozen hands and lips...

Key Features & Benefits• So what does one look for when comparing coffee cups? What

criteria relate as much to end users like MDs and RNs, as those technical gurus trapped all day in the basement IT department?

• Here’s what CLAS used to evaluate them in its in-depth review:– Volume – just how much java or tea can one of these vessels

hold before you have to go back for an update/revision?– Readability – did the vendor properly plan to locate their logo

for ease of viewing so you knew just whose cup you held?– Size – how large is the container, so fellow office-workers will

know just how much (or little) content you can handle.– Source– just who manufactured the mug? Was it acquired in a

“mega-merger” deal, or self-developed by inhouse staff?– User-friendliness – how many fingers of your hand can the

handle handle? Any uncomfortable crimping of digits?

Neutral Comparison • To be sure we were fair and

objective in our reviews, CLAS used a totally neutral container with no hint of its origins to achieve true “blind” testing comparisons. Unlike Black Book or KLAS, we used this totally neutral third party container to insure our measurements and scoring were not biased in any way while comparing them.

• It doesn’t matter how many of our reports you purchase from CLAS, we give straight & honest evaluations and comparisons!

Volume Testing• First test is volume: just how much can the cup hold? Can it

handle huge multi-IDNs or “just” small community hospitals? • HIStalk’s mug came in at just over

1 & 1/2 cups, enough to satisfy the average user for many minutes of typical use before a refill.

• Epic’s cup held only 1 & ¼ cup, causing its users to have to get up from their desk a little more often, losing precious productivity.

• Our neutral 3rd party cup barely held 1 full cup, showing how HIStalk and Epic truly are leaders in this hot & fluid field.

Readability• Can you tell at a glance just whose cup this is, without having to

enter make too many digital clicks & screen flips to find out? • Epic really came up short here, with their cup

requiring almost a full 360 degree rotation for the typical user to figure out just whose cup it was. Imagine a busy nurse or physician making rounds and having to stop, and hold the cup with their other hand just to find out whose cup it was that they were holding?

• Tsk, tsk, poor product design and a sure sign of a rather weak marketing department, the key department in any HIS vendor today!

• By contrast, HIStalk and the neutral mug were instantly identifiable at a single glance…

Size• Does size really matter in this area? What does the size of your

coffee cup tell fellow-workers about your ability to handle it? Is all this talk about size really relevant today in this era of well-informed consumers who know what really satisfies them?

• HIStalk really stood out in this key test, coming in at a whopping 4 and 1/2 inches!

• Epic came up a bit short here again, at just over 3 and ¾ inches, rather disappointing.

• Interestingly, in diameter they all measured the same roughly 3 inches in thickness. Just how important is girth to the typical HIT consumer? And does it really matter that much compared to length? Who knows…

Source• Where did these cups come from? Were they acquired in some

type of “mega-merger” so common in our industry, or were they self-developed inhouse so the staff knows them intimately?

• Inverting all 3 mugs enables a fascinating observation: Epic and our neutral mug give no hint of their origins – your guess is as good as mine…

• But HIStalk’s mug (unlike his face in real life) is totally transparent – check out this enlargement on the right:

• He must buy them from WalMart and then have them decorated with his logo. But isn’t most IT these days Asia-based?

Digital Friendliness• How handily does the cup fit your grip? Does it take too many

clicks & keystrokes to maneuver it, or can you grasp it easily?

• In this critical test of user-friendliness, HIStalk’s mug really rocks! It’s longer length greatly facilitates adoptability, easily grasped with all 4 fingers snuggled in the large-sized handle.

• On the other hand (punny?), Epic comes up short as only 3 fingers fit in its much smaller handle. Maybe in subsequent releases, further enhancements might be made to some day handle more digits?

Results• So what’s the bottom line? The table below shows how these 3

cups scored in our totally objective testing and evaluation:Criteria HIStalk Epic Neutral

Volume 3 2 1

Readability 3 1 2

Size 3 2 1

Source 1 3 2

User-friendliness

3 2 1

TOTALS 13 10 7

• Note: CLAS inverts the scores so that a first place in a given category receives a score of 3, 2nd place a 2, and third place a 1. Confusing? Sure is, but it lets us manipulate the data any way we want behind the scene so you never know what’s going on...

Who Do You Trust?• So what ratings of HIS vendors and products can you trust while

you’re drinking coffee from HIStalk’s winning mug? Look for:– # of Hospitals – just how many hospitals responded to their survey – 100+

is meaningful; only a handful could be misleading. None given, beware...– Bed Sizes – an AMC’s rating of CPSI is as meaningless as a CAH’s rating of

Epic. If they don’t tell you the bed size of the respondents, beware…– Age – how old is the data? Vendors change pretty radically (ask any

Siemens employee), and anything older than 1-2 years = beware...– Users or CIOs? - what job titles responded? An RN’s evaluation of an EHR is

a lot more meaningful than a CIOs, just as CIO know more about interface engines than a registrar. If they don’t tell you who responded, beware…

– Vendor Revenue – how much does the winning vendor spend buying reports from the rating firm? These companies are in the business to make money – where do they get it from? If they don’t tell you, beware…

• If anyone knows of a source of system ratings that provides this data, please let me know at 505.466.4958 or vciotti@hispros.com