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

speCial seCTion upgrading ris/paCs “That time adds up over the course of a day,” explains Hamer. Consider an ordinary caseload of 20 CTs daily; a six-minute delay translates into two hours of wait time for the radiologist. There are other issues as well. “Tape drives are mechanical and fragile, susceptible to break downs,” she says. Fast forward to the syngo Suite/EMC Centera era. Radiologists can retrieve any image from the near-line spinning disk in a matter of seconds. “This translates into quicker turn-around times,” reports Hamer. Prior to the syngo Suite transition, report turn-around hovered in the 24-hour range. Since deploying syngo Suite and EMC Centera, the Children’s radiology department boasts report turn-around in the four-to five-hour range. FunctionAlity to the MAxiMuM the PAcS AdMiniStrAtor’S PerSPective “I am constantly building and improving processes with Siemens Medical Solutions syngo Suite,” shares Lynn Odom, PACS administrator at Children’s Hospital of Alabama in Birmingham. The hospital and the affiliated Children’s Health System transitioned to Siemens syngo Suite integrated RIS/PACS early in 2008 and the new system has produced dramatic improvements in the hospital’s integrated RIS-driven workflow. For example: › syngo Workflow automates and streamlines peer review. Prior to the transition, peer review was a manual process that required technologists to physically pull studies from the file room. syngo Suite places relevant studies on the worklist; radiologists simply select a prior result and review the findings to determine if they agree or disagree. “With syngo Suite, our compliance has improved, with each radiologist completing five peer reviews weekly,” says Odom. › syngo Workflow facilitates critical results reporting. Radiologists can flag critical results to close the reporting loop and eliminate the need to pulling of critical results. Similarly, Odom used syngo Workflow to create a trauma worklist to improve turn-around and service for trauma studies. Prior to creating the trauma worklist, radiologists weren’t immediately aware of trauma images to interpret until they appeared on the routine worklist. Now, when the tech tracks a procedure to the trauma location, a trauma worklist appears on the radiologist worklist(s) immediately. › Children’s uses syngo Workflow’s Interactive Documents function to automate ED discrepancy tracking. If a radiologist determines that an initial ED read missed a finding such as a hairline fracture, an Interactive Document is created and automatically printed in the ER follow-up nurse’s office. › The conference worklist function streamlines the conference process. A radiologist or clinician can load an entire patient file, specific studies or parts of exams into a conference folder. The digital folder is immediately available enterprise-wide for conferencing. Similarly, ER physicians use the function to store challenging ER cases to review with radiologists during monthly meetings. › syngo Suite includes tabs to link to other systems. For example, a radiologist can launch the EMR to access lab results or patient history without leaving the integrated RIS/PACS environment. “syngo Suite will continue to grow with the hospital. We realize the possibilities are tremendous. By continuing to optimize syngo Suite, Children’s Hospital can provide the highest quality pediatric patient care and develop efficient workflows for all care providers,” sums Odom. Josh Pavlovec, PACS Administrator at Children’s Hosptial of Alabama tweaks images on a wall-mounted display in the orthopedic clinic. Health Imaging & IT | May 2008 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

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