Health Imaging & IT - May 2008 - (Page 41)

Sponsored by an educational grant from Siemens & EMC Corporation e ffective solutions to these standard—and widespread—challenges require planning, partnership and vision. Take for example Children’s Health System and its flagship 275-bed Children’s Hospital of Alabama of Birmingham, Ala. Children’s Health System is comprised of Children’s Hospital, an outpatient surgery and diagnostic center called Children’s South, an off-site pediatric specialists practice and 14 primary-care pediatrics practices across the state. The health systems’ partners—RIS/PACS from Siemens and information infrastructure from EMC Corporation—have collaborated to develop a proactive approach to the challenges of 21st century digital image management and workflow. Early in 2008, Children’s became one of the first sites to transition from Siemens Magic technology to syngo Suite, an integrated webenabled RIS/PACS platform, including syngo Workflow RIS and syngo Imaging PACS. In doing so, it established a solid foundation for efficient workflow, improved communication and reporting, robust cost savings, scaleable storage and disaster recovery. The magic of syngo Suite, however, transcends workflow mastery. The RIS/PACS upgrade moved Children’s to the next level of digital image management by delivering a more sophisticated, richer user experience, allowing the imaging department to provide high value services to improve patient care across the enterprise. “syngo Suite is so customizable and flexible. We’re confident that we can use the software to answer any business requirement including specific documentation or tracking needs,” explains Chief of Radiology Stuart Royal, MD. Senior Vice President, Director of Operations Pete Van Pelt is part of the team leading the charge to plan Children’s Hospital of Alabama’s brand-new facility slated to open in 2012, just down the street from the current facility. upgrading Children’s Health Systems’ RIS/PACS to Siemens syngo Suite is one step in that plan to assure solid image and information infrastructure for future growth. Digital image volume represents only a fraction of the picture. Children’s has gained a number of benefits with the implementation of Siemens digital image management solutions. The hospital has accelerated and improved patient care, slashed costs and shortened report turnaround time from an average of 24 hours to less than four hours. Royal credits the integrated RIS/PACS model with a 40 percent increase in efficiency among radiologists. Plus, the health system has cut film costs by $250,000 annually. opting for the upgrade Despite its impressive implementation of enterprise digital image management and RIS-driven workflow, Children’s continues to actively search for ways to improve pediatric patient care. “We plan to open a new facility in 2012, so we’re focused on infrastructure to support future needs,” shares Senior Vice President of Operations Pete Van Pelt. The plan includes hiring new specialists in neurosurgery and orthopedic surgery; investing in PET/CT, interoperative MRI and an interventional radiology suite and, equally important, perfecting current processes and systems. “We’d like the new facility to be paperless,” shares IT Divisional Director Pam Atkins. As Children’s pondered its future, the health system also faced a number of intense developments in radiology such as the nearly absolute penetration of 64-slice CT scanners. The ubiquitous 64-slice brings new challenges. The hefty datasets generated by 64-slice CT often tax conventional tape-based archives. At the same time, new storage alternatives, EMC CLARiiON CX series systems and EMC Centera active archiving storage solutions offer lightening fast, reliable storage to current and historical medical and radiological information and the scalability to accommodate terabytes of image data being generated every year at Children’s. Similarly, PACS infrastructure has improved. Siemens next-generation syngo Suite technology offers a next step for burgeoning radiology departments by blending image acquisition, RIS, PACS, post-processing and report distribution in a unified environment. Last year, Children’s decided to transition from SIENET Magic to syngo Imaging. Multiple factors drove the decision, says Lynne Hamer, divisional director of pediatric imaging. The priMay 2008 | Health Imaging & IT 1 a solid foundation Children’s began the transition to digital imaging and digital image management in 2003, deploying Siemens SIENET PACS, and NOVIUS Radiology RIS and implementing an integrated RIS/PACS model. At that time, the hospital started the conversion to digital imaging equipment, installing CR and DR in the diagnostic, outpatient radiology and emergency departments and equipping operating rooms with digital C-arms. Other digital modalities added later include 16 and 64-slice CT scanners, digital R&F, ultrasound and two 1.5T MRIs. In addition, MagicWeb web-based image and report distribution provided a means to infuse digital image processes across the enterprise. The health system deployed PACS in the emergency department, operating rooms, hospital clinics and all nursing floors to deliver additional efficiencies and cost savings. The results of the initial project are impressive. Siemens RISdriven workflow and integrated RIS/PACS model reinvented the radiology department to provide a robust framework for high-quality pediatric care. The Children’s Hospital of Alabama radiology department is 99 percent digital, and its eight radiologists read about 140,000 imaging studies annually. HealthImaging.com http://HealthImaging.com

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

Health Imaging & IT - May 2008 Contents On the Web The Enterprise News Update Convention Spotlight: SIIM 2008 Healthcare IT Salary Survey Survey Findings Inside the Transition to Next-Generation Image Management Blurring the Lines: Interfaced vs. Integrated RIS/PACS The Insider's Primer: Taming the Workflow Beast - Five Facilities Tell How Availability, Applications Drive New Archive Strategies Modality Review Managing Technology Inside Technology Reader's Resource Stat Sheet

Health Imaging & IT - May 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.