Rating the Ratings

Part 3 – Black Book & Peer60

By Vince Ciotti & Elise AmesHIS Professionals, LLC

(with a lot of help from Mr. HIStalk,and many of you readers)

Black Book RankingsThe #2 vendor rating service for both hospital and physician systems, Black Book was formed in 2002 in Tampa, FL, as “Brown-Wilson” by its 2 co-founders:– Douglas Brown – (no wisecracks on his last

name…), who also started their outsourcing division in 2001, & healthcare division in 2009.

– Scott Wilson – who is primarily an IT outsourcing maven, author of the (guess the color of the cover?) book: “The Black Book of Outsourcing.”

Like KLAS, Black Book conducts surveys of hospital (& MD practice) end users regarding their experience with leading vendors & products, based on 18 performance areas. They claim both internal and external audits of the data accuracy before they publish any results…

Black Book’s 18 Indicators• Amazingly, they publish their 18

indicators right on their web site:– (you’d think like most reviewers,

they’d charge for this info…)• They serve multiple industries, and

claim over 12,000 clients including all of the nation’s top 100 financial institutions, 300 largest hospitals, 50 top insurers, 100 top universities, and the world’s 400 largest technology firms. Whew!

• Like KLAS, they offer a wide array of services to their clients:- Public Opinion Polling, Market Research, Sentiment Analyses, Vendor Comparisons, Marketing, Opinion

Mining…

Multitudinous Reports• You name it, they got it, and sell it right through Amazon!

• Amazing they list the price of their reports right on their web site (most others don’t…) and even offer complimentary (old) results!

Sample Complimentary Reports• We couldn’t resist free reports, so here’s 2015 for large EHRs:

• What’s great is before you lay out cash for this year’s reports, you can see the gory details of last years to know what you’re buying.

Peer60Jeremy Bikman - joined KLAS in 2003 and spent 7 years there before founding Peer60. The company name stands for its unique approach to surveys:– Peer-to-peer – in a revealing interview with Mr.

HIStalk (http://histalk2.com/2015/05/04/histalk-interviews-jeremy-bikman-ceo-peer60/) ) he explains how only MDs & RNs can rate EHRs, not CIOs or CFOs. Simple idea, but very profound…

– 60 Seconds – who has time for a 60 minute phone interview? Rather send out a 60 second email survey questionnaire! Simple & profound.

These two market survey principles have given Peer60 a unique approach that they now offer to dozens of client companies both in healthcare (e.g.: Nuance, AGFA, Phillips, Mmodal, IHC…) and other industries as well (e.g.: IBM, Samsung, Phillips…).

Hysterical!If you have the time (and need) for a good long laugh, take a journey to their web site (https://www.peer60.com) and read some of their bios like these examples. There are entries like this from all 11 of their FTEs, that get even more honest and entertaining...

And if you really want to get over all the bad news in the newspapers and on TV these days, read this riotous e-book Jeremy wrote, whose title alone shows his honesty and candor. It’s no wonder Mr. HIStalk picked him to do the Epic survey.

Other Products & Services• Like KLAS &

Black Book, Peer60 offers a wide array of marketing tools, surveys & other types of research to clients, as listed on the right:

• About their only weakness is in how hard their name is to spell – I first called them “Peer360,” after the HR approach of having colleagues evaluate employees. Jeremy says he’s seen it misspelled as “Pier60” so often, he’s thinking of changing it to “Reaction.”

Next Week• Our next episode will focus on how each of these raters

addresses the key criteria we first laid out in our overview:– Numbers – how many responses were received, from what

job titles, when did they respond, which product, etc.– Money – how much they charge vendors to participate, how

much they charge hospitals & practices for reports, etc.• If we survive that episode, remaining ones will cover:– The results of HIStalk’s survey, over 55 responses already!

• http://histalk.com/machform/view.php?id=33836– Rating of the leading physician practice system ratings:

• FPM, SK&A, Software Advice, MD Buyline, AmericanEHR, etc.– DIY - how to “do it yourself” – cheaper & more relevant?

• For your size facility, your state, your product, your apps…• For questions, comments, or complaints, please contact us at:

– vciotti@hispros.com, 505.466.4958 or eames@hispros.com, 413.329.6925