3. other his reviewers

1. Rating the
Ratings
Part 3 – Black Book &
Peer60
By Vince Ciotti & Elise Ames
HIS Professionals, LLC
(with a lot of help from Mr. HIStalk,
and many of you readers)

2. Black Book Rankings
The #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…

3. 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…

4. 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!

5. 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.

6. Peer60
Jeremy 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…).

7. 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.

8. 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.”

9. 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