Nearly one out of six hospitals and health systems with over 1,000 beds will replace their PACS systems, as a new "wave" of replacements among bigger hospitals should roil an otherwise slowed market, according to a new survey by industry research firm KLAS.

The Orem, Utah-based group also said buyers were increasingly eager for PACS vendors to work with their electronic medical record providers.

In a teaser for the report, PACS 2011: A Victim of Its Own Success, announced Friday, KLAS said about 22 percent of surveyed acute care organizations with over 600 beds were "in play," meaning their current PACS system did not figure in their long-term plans. (The margin of error is about 5 percent.) For places with fewer than 200 beds, that number is 18 percent. (Margin of error or the 95 percent confidence interval: about 10 percent.)
While KLAS said customer satisfaction rates for most vendors are the same or better than last year, providers who use DR Systems, Philips, Carestream, McKesson, and Fuji are most likely to recommend their PACS to other customers, KLAS said.

More Industry Headlines