According to the Orem, Utah-based research and consulting firm, KLAS Research, most providers that are using clinical decision support (CDS) surveillance systems say the technology has had a moderate to significant impact on clinical outcomes.

In total, 79 percent of providers (140 were surveyed for the report) say that CDS surveillance systems have led to mostly positive clinical outcomes. "Providers make it clear that they feel that CDS surveillance is having a positive impact on how well they are able to care for their patients," Adam Cherrington, research director and report author from KLAS, said in a statement. "This report doesn't just answer the question of whether CDS surveillance is having an impact on clinical outcomes; it also reveals which vendors are the best positioned and most effective at helping providers."

In the report, KLAS looked at a number of vendors, including Allscripts,Caradigm, Carefusion, Cerner, Epic, Hospira, Perahealth, Siemens, Truven Health Pharmacy, and Wolters Kluwer. KLAS broke the vendors into categories of pharmacy-focused surveillance, enterprise-wide surveillance and EMR surveillance.