Images Anywhere, Anytime: Web-based PACS & RIS/PACS

s part of the Delaware Health Information Network (DHIN), Bayhealth Medical Center is a founding member of a statewide health information and electronic data interchange network for public and private use for timely, reliable and relevant healthcare information. The legislation was signed in 1997; however, it took DHIN and the medical center several years to determine what role it would play within the network. “It wasn’t until recently that we decided that health IT could help improve care and perhaps reduce cost that we found our true mission,” says David Walczak, assistant vice president for technology and CIO who is responsible for telecommunications, clinical engineering and health information management at Bayhealth. “We have been working very hard over the last three years and have deployed a system that is now automating the delivery of our results to our physicians’ offices,” he says. The medical center saw the benefits of deploying health IT by deploying online medical records, electronic surgical systems, patient tracking systems in its emergency department, online clinical documentation for patient care services and electronic medication administration. About six years ago, the health system first deployed client/ server PACS plus a Web distribution solution from Dynamic Imaging, now part of GE Healthcare, which was migrated over to a fully Webbased PACS—Centricity PACS-IW—in 2006. “All of this was designed to provide additional information to caregivers to make more informed decisions which improve patient outcomes and patient safety,” says Walczak. Prior to Web-based PACS, Bayhealth utilized a client/serverbased system that worked very well within the imaging departments and worked OK outside of the imaging departments; however, Walczak says they quickly realized it would be difficult to extend that to every location that was needed within and outside of the hospitals to referring physicians. Since deploying Web-based PACS, the biggest challenge the medical center has faced was the change management in business operations. “With both technologists and radiologists going from a film-based to an electronic world, that was really our biggest challenge,” he says. Another advantage is that the system uses the medical center’s own 1,800 PCs in its network to access PACS images and results. The ability to add additional imaging centers or equipment is really very transparent because of the way the architecture is laid out. “We simply extend our network to wherever it’s needed, be it an off-site imaging center, be it to another new imaging piece of equipment coming into one of our hospitals,” Walczak says. “The ability to integrate our existing imaging modalities has been very straightforward—it is, for all intents and purposes, simply plug-in-play—it is that simple.” A key feature is the integration of the Web-based PACS with the health system’s physician portal, giving physicians access to online dictation, lab results, x-ray results as well as images, points out PACS A PACS Administrator Laura Roy and CIO David Walczak access the Dell server rack console display in the data center at Bayhealth Medical Center in Dover, Del., that is adjacent to Kent General Hospital. Administrator Laura Roy. “Our PACS also is integrated with the Commissure voice recognition system, which enables radiologists to populate the report from the PACS without having to type in or look up information on that patient from another PC,” Roy adds. Since adding Web-based PACS, radiologist productivity has increased from 85 percent to approximately 95 percent. Report turnaround times that once took 24 to 48 hours for off-site reports, depending on when couriers came back to the hospital, now take roughly 24 hours, says Joyce Webb, RTR, QM, site manager for diagnostic imaging who oversees the daily activities at Milford Memorial. “Now it is a click of a button and a radiologist can read it,” Webb notes. “A patient can just walk into one of our off-site [imaging facilities], get an image taken and our radiologist can read it right away.” PACS enables a radiologist to start reading a study 10 minutes after a patient is off the table, Webb says. Prior to PACS, it could take anywhere from 15 minutes to two hours to be ready for a radiologist read, she adds. “Previously, you had to go back and pull a jacket for prior images that they can compare. With PACS, all the priors are already in the system—they can go in and compare an MR to a CT and a CT to an ultrasound with just the click of a button.” Even when patients are airlifted to the level one trauma center in Newark, Del., trauma specialists can easily view the patient’s imaging studies via CDs provided with the patient, or log in over the Web to see their imaging studies. Martin Begley, MD, a radiologist at Kent General and one of the medical education directors, confirms the workflow and report turnaround times seen with the deployment of the Web-based PACS. “PACS has been a tremendous boon to patient care, especially since it is linked to our voice recognition system. When a report is signed off, it immediately prints on the patient’s unit and is available on the Web for access. On average, final reports for most examinations are available to referring physicians wherever they are in the world within 35 to 40 minutes after the images are obtained. The images are also available with the report.” HealthImaging.com Images, Anywhere, Anytime: Web-Based PACS & RIS/PACS | Health Imaging & IT http://HealthImaging.com

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