Gambling on PACS

Are you in a position to gamble and lose a hundred thousand dollars? How about twice that amount? Not many people working in the radiology field are willing to take that kind of risk. But maybe you are OK with gambling your facilities money? Normally that would get you sent straight to jail. But when you purchase a PACS system from a small, relatively unknown PACS vendor, you are doing exactly that - gambling not only the cost of the PACS, but also the time, money and effort that is required to implement a PACS system.

There are over 300 vendors who make a so called "PACS" system. KLAS is a company that rates healthcare vendors (best in KLAS rankings) and they have in their database rankings of 71 vendors of PACS for facilities under 200 beds. That is only a one quarter of the total vendors who make PACS. All of the major players are in the rankings of course, and many small to medium sized facilities are also listed there. Each year KLAS ranks the top 25 PACS vendors based on their research into customer satisfaction, installed base, vendor technology, etc. Carestream is consistently in the top 10 in the rankings of all vendors, and recently has been in the top 5 each year. If you pick any of the top 10-15 vendors in KLAS as your PACS vendor you can feel somewhat comfortable the products will work as advertised. You will still need to do your homework to make sure the products has the features you need, that local service is available, and the price fits your budget. But in most cases you are not taking a huge gamble with the top ranked vendors in KLAS ratings.

As you move down the rankings you increase the risk of getting a system that works, that past customers are satisfied with and will meet your expectations. If you REALLY want to gamble, buy a PACS system from a vendor that is not even in the KLAS database. I know of one facility that chose a non-KLAS ranked vendor and ended up with a $180,000 paperweight in their server room. They are now in a lawsuit just hoping to get some of their money back. For a small hospital or imaging center this can be disastrous. Not only will you lose the money you paid, but also all the time and effort spent trying to implement the system. And then you have turn around and purchase another system! You can pretty well bet this customer is now only talking to the major vendors for their next PACS.

That is not to say that all PACS vendors outside the KLAS rankings are bad. It just means you are taking a huge risk with an unknown vendor without a track record of satisfied customers. Can you afford to take that risk? Are you willing to bet hundreds of thousands of hard earned dollars on an unproven and unknown vendor? Are you willing to risk your job if the choice turns out bad?