Health Imaging & IT - March 2008 - (Page 44)

inSide teChnology By Sarah Lamberti Supplying demand Del Donaldson, clinical systems analyst at Advanced Diagnostic Imaging (ADI) in Waterloo, Iowa, says that even with a PACS in place, the facility is primarily still printing film. “We are doing more business by printing film compared to other facilities that are trying to decrease film costs,” he says. “Film is getting a lot more use here than paper,” he adds, because referring physicians in the area, as well as one of the hospitals in town, do not have digital reading capabilities and commonly request studies on film. Donaldson just purchased his second Sony laser imager because the first one he bought three years ago was just “worn out from printing more than 100,000 film studies.” They have two Sony FilmStation laser imagers and just last year added a Sony Color DICOM printer to support MR, CT, nuclear medicine, ultrasound and PET/CT. One FilmStation, located at the main ADI site, prints on 14x17 film, while the second one, housed at the University of Northern Iowa, has a dual tray which prints 8x10, 10x12, 11x14 and 14x17 films. They’re currently only using the paper printer for PET/ CT studies since many of the images are color—which are printed in color for referring physicians’ review, he says. Down the road, Donaldson says ADI will most likely start printing less film but “we have the capability with Sony that as the demand for film decreases in our area, the demand for paper will increase and we will be ready.” Laser Imagers Answering the Call for Hard Copy With any PACS rollout, there is the promise, the dream of becoming a filmless, digital environment. But eliminating film does not eliminate the fact that people are still printing—the question is to what extent and in what format. Cutting costs Frederick Memorial Hospital (FMH) in Frederick, Md., is a 250-bed community hospital in the Baltimore suburbs with three full-service imaging outpatient centers that perform about 200,000 procedures annually. FMH deployed the aycan x-ray-print solution for multimodality diagnostic images about a year ago to replace film usage at the hospital, according to Brian Petrie, FMH’s telemedicine administrator. 44 Health Imaging & IT | March 2008 HealthImaging.com http://HealthImaging.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Health Imaging & IT - March 2008

Health Imaging & IT - March 2008 Table of Contents On the Web The Enterprise: Communicating Better News Update Critical Test Results Management: The Human Touch The Changing Face of the Cath Lab Cardiovascular CT: A Clinical Boon Cardiology PACS: Solutions to Fit Your Needs ACC 08: Building Quality & Value Together Picking the Perfect PACS Displays PET/CT: A Game-Changer in Cancer Patient Management DR: You Gotta Have IT – Delivering Speed, Efficiency, Savings Laser Imagers: Answering the Call for Hard Copy Reader's Resources Stat Sheet

Health Imaging & IT - March 2008

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