Ultrasound: Saving Time and Money with Workflow Automation

Ultrasound is a popular modality, widely used in healthcare, and there are a host of vendors in the market. For their Ultrasound2014: Saving Time and Money withWorkflow Automation r eport K L AS Research interviewed 178 healthcare providers to find out their opinions on which ultrasound vendors deliver when it comes to providing best value and saving time. To quote one sonographer, “Every minute we save is a minute we can use for another patient.”

Performance

The vendors included were gE, Philips, Siemens and Toshiba. gE’s LOgIQ E9 ranked top: providers were satisfied with the scanner’s reliability and gE’s account management. The Philips iU22 virtually tied with gE in this study. gE customers save an average of almost seven minutes per scan, across all scan types. Philips, Toshiba and Siemens customers save just over five minutes per scan. Providers save the most time on abdominal scans, regardless of vendor.

Top performer gE Healthcare, with the LOgIQ E9 with XDClear, found favour with its Scan Assistant tools and ergonomic features, including the ease of raising and lowering the monitor. The six providers who rated it gave an average score of 96 out of 100. Users of the Philips iU22 with xMatrix saved time with the organ identification tool, and found the automation tools and touchscreen user interface intuitive.

Price

gE came in at the lowest average per unit in this report. Philips is the most expensive, based on information from those who reported pricing. Philips customers noted that extra charges for service were an annoyance. However, Philips was praised for its technology and providers felt that it is worth the expenditure. Toshiba is second most expensive on average and several providers felt that they were not getting their money’s worth as the technology is not the same standards as other vendors. Some Siemens customers felt they were not getting their money’s worth due to reliability challenges in the initial rollout of the S2000. Some were pleased that they were able to trade in their S2000 for an S3000

The full report Ultrasound 2014: Saving Time and Money with Workflow Automation is available from K L ASResearch, www.klasresearch.com

About KLAS Research

KLAS works with over 30,000 people in 5,000 hospitals and nearly 3,000 ambulatory organisations. K L AS sources its information predominantly from the United States. KL AS data and reports represent the combined opinions of actual people from provider organizations comparing how their vendors, products, and/or services performed when measured against participants’ objectives and expectations.