Black Book: Tech Support from EHR Vendors Essential as Many Hospital Clients Vent Frustrations

Mike Miliard | Healthcare IT News | February 16, 2016

IT support is emerging as a key factor in hospital satisfaction and many trends will shape these relationships, report says.

Electronic health record vendors that don't offer robust customer technical support services risk losing established clients and new customers, according to a new report from Black Book Market Research that found that one-third of hospitals surveyed are currently unhappy with their IT support.

More than 82 percent of hospitals say tech support, whether from the vendor itself or from an outsourced partnering firm, will be a leading competitive differentiator in 2016, according to Black Book. Tech support outsourcing is expanding, the survey data shows, with 16 percent of hospital respondents outsourcing at least half of their IT support needs. By the end this year, some 35 percent of hospitals with more than 100 beds expect to increase spending on outsourced support by 100 percent.

"Enterprise tech support is a highly complex and niche area in healthcare, where specialists can make a big difference in client loyalty by catering from Level 1 to Level 4 product support to ensure all the provider's business goals are aligned with technology readiness," said Doug Brown, managing partner of Black Book, in a statement...