Health Imaging & IT - October 2008 - (Page 28)

technoloGy outlook By Justine Cadet pacs An Enterprise Priority Deploying PACS beyond the physical and virtual walls of the radiology department or imaging center, regardless of size, provides the opportunity to extend beyond the reach of diagnostic imaging to a broader range of caregivers and enabling improved efficiencies, cost savings and better patient care. PACS in July and August, followed by the technologists, who had to learn how to use modality worklists in every department, as well as learn how to access images via PACS and through the Meditech EMR. Finally, the referring physicians had to learn how to access the images via our Meditech EMR.” Even with smaller facilities, these types of training sessions can be beneficial. When Bustleton Radiology Associates, an ACRaccredited, radiologist-owned and operated facility that images 100-plus patients a day, implemented Viztek’s Opal-RAD PACS in 2005, the entire deployment took approximately one week. The process went smoothly, says Anthony J. Limberakis, MD, president and CEO of Bustleton, with a Viztek representative guiding each of the three radiologists through a tutorial for two days. This sped the deployment process and eliminated the natural learning curve when working with a new system. “While there was some lead time to integrate our voice recognition system into the PACS and RIS, we were reading soft copy within a week. Because of the training, it was a smooth transition.” “Communication and education are just huge components of the acceptance of PACS in an enterprise situation,” Bodyk says. transition hiccups Great Baltimore’s enterprise PACS connects three joint ventures, including Medical Imaging of Baltimore, where the hospital’s MR and PET/CT images are acquired, and Advanced Radiology—both of which are physically attached to the hospital. Due to the large size of MR and PET/CT studies, the hospital has to account for the expanding storage volume. “Within a hospital’s budget, you have to account for any equipment that is attached digitally to the PACS environment. This year, we added a CR system, so we had to make sure that we had enough SAN [storage area network] storage to make sure we were covered for our increased study volume. Because we pay for our web-based PACS according to our study volume, it determines what we pay annually for support.” Healthimaging.com [ a technologist at floyd valley Hospital in le Mars, iowa, looks up a patient record on an aspyra enterprise Pacs workstation. ] training is key Education is an integral component of implementing an enterprise PACS, according to Barbara Nagle Bodyk, PACS administrator and manager at the 300-bed Greater Baltimore Medical Center, which processes approximately 150,000 studies on their PACS annually. Greater Baltimore began installing components of the AMICAS’ Vision Series enterprise 28 Health Imaging & IT | october 2008 PACS in the spring of 2005, and went live in August 2005. “Over the course of those four months, we continued installing, testing and training with our staff,” Bodyk recalls. Various subsets of medical professionals received training at different times and for different purposes. “We conducted training sessions by appointment, in addition to open-house settings. The radiologists gained initial access and training on the http://www.HealthImaging.com

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Health Imaging & IT - October 2008 Contents The Enterprise News Update Top Trends in Health Imaging & IT - Topping the Competition Advances in Cardiac CT & MRI CVIS Spurs Innovation Technology Outlook People & Technology In Practice Reader's Resource

Health Imaging & IT - October 2008

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