Research and Markets: The Acquisition of IDX Corp. by GE Healthcare Provides GE a Larger Client Base and a More Complete Product Portfolio, Which Now Extends to Hospital Financial Systems

Business Wire, Feb 22, 2007

DUBLIN, Ireland -- Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c51008) has announced the addition of Essentials of the U.S. Hospital IT Market 2006 to their offering.

The Analytics Database (derived from the Dorenfest IHDS Database[TM]) captures information on more than 4,000 hospitals and 28,000 medical facilities in the United States. With this data, we can analyze and assess industry trends related to legacy IT systems, emerging IT systems, current technologies and emerging technologies. The forecasting model and analysis of this data has allowed us to provide a comprehensive report of key healthcare IT markets in the U.S. that:

-Presents a forecast of market spending for key application environments, as well as the overall market;

-Presents a market review for major financial and clinical applications;

-Presents vendor market-share positions relative to major financial and clinical applications.

-Presents market results and analysis for the major hospital related IT application solutions.

The 2006 Essentials of the U.S. Hospital IT Market report is a valuable tool for companies that invest in healthcare IT products, vendors of hospital IT solutions, and consulting companies servicing the healthcare IT industry that require an accurate "snapshot" of the current market conditions, as well as spending projections to validate or establish their market, product, and business plans.

Content Outline:

Introduction

Executive Overview

Market Overview

1. Spending Forecast for 2005 - 2006 By Applications and Total Market

2. Key Vendors

3. Key Consultants

Application Overview

1. Ambulatory Applications

2. Ancillary/Clinical Applications

3. Electronic Medical Record Applications

4. Electronic Medical Record Implementation Strategy

5. Financial Decision Support Applications

6. Financial Management Applications

7. Health Information Management Applications

8. Human Resources Applications

9. Patient Safety Applications

10. Radiology PACS Applications

11. Revenue Cycle Management Applications

Industry Sign Posts

Conclusion

Appendices

1. Data Definitions

2. Tables

Most healthcare organizations continue to significantly under-budget and under-invest in IT products and services, compared to other industries. However, government mandates and market drivers are emerging that will change this practice. The U.S. government is allocating money for IT-related projects that improve patient safety or information exchange among stakeholders.

Competition in many urban areas of the United States is driving hospitals to improve their IT environments to attract healthcare professionals and patients in a highly competitive environment. Payers are experimenting with pay-for-performance models, which require that hospitals attain the ability to report on improved patient outcomes.

Current hospital IT investment in applications, maintenance and implementation services is approximately 38 percent of the total IT investment forecast that includes all applications, maintenance, all services, hardware, and outsourcing. We project that hospital spending increases will mirror the rate of inflation for the next two years. Several market drivers will continue to increase hospital IT spending -- patient safety considerations and concerns; legacy applications' continuing inability to deliver the operational flexibility needed to support evolving business and clinical environments for revenue cycle management; and electronic medical record operations. Costs and operational efficiency pressures will continue to drive improvements in supply-chain management.

Key healthcare IT vendors and consulting companies will continue to consolidate the market over the next five years. Recent acquisitions of Healthlink by IBM and Superior Consulting by ACS demonstrate the consolidation of healthcare-focused consultancies by companies looking to expand their consulting services portfolio. The acquisition of PeopleSoft by Oracle will impact the healthcare enterprise resource planning market by providing Oracle with a significant footprint in a market it was struggling to penetrate. The acquisition of IDX Corp. by GE Healthcare provides GE a larger client base and a more complete product portfolio, which now extends to hospital financial systems. We predict the acquisition of many smaller healthcare IT vendors over the next three years by companies entering the healthcare IT market, or by existing enterprise vendors desiring to increase their market share more quickly than could be accomplished through organic growth.

The application suites that will generate the highest revenues over the next 24 months are revenue cycle management (patient billing, registration, patient scheduling and contract management); patient safety/electronic medical records; computerized practitioner order entry; bar-code automation; bar-code dispensing; electronic medication administration records and automated dispensing machines; ancillary/clinical department applications (radiology, pharmacy, laboratory, emergency department and surgery); and PACS (picture archiving and communication systems - all modalities).