by
Lisa Chamoff, Contributing Reporter | February 11, 2019
From the January/February 2019 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine
“They have an understanding of it and they can give you guidance on the best techniques,” Dennison said.
Bennett said it is important to note that “there’s always loss of data” during a transition.
“There is just so much more data and more images” these days, Bennett said.
Attention to workflow
It is increasingly important for radiology departments to more broadly consider how PACS features fit into a radiology workflow.
“Think not just about bells, whistles and tools, but how to integrate more tightly into the overall workflow, adding value beyond a stand-alone application, such as a liver lesion management tool,” Shrestha said. “At the same time, they’re not really connected to the rest of the workflow.”
It’s also important to bring in additional context, called image-related clinical context, about patients from the EHR, Shrestha said.
“At UPMC, we’re working with GE to specifically bring in context,” Shrestha said.
Sometimes, integration into the EHR just isn’t in the budget. David Alexa, RIS/PACS administrator for the Dickinson County Healthcare System in Iron Mountain, Michigan, said that when upgrading to Carestream Health’s Clinical Collaboration Platform in October 2017, they weren’t able to add EHR integration.
Instead of viewing images directly in the EHR, in-network physicians log on to a different system to view the images after reading the radiologist’s report in the EHR. If patients are transferred to an out-of-network facility, images are shared using a virtual private network, a secure tunnel between the two sites that allows DICOM traffic.
“It’s more of a workflow issue,” Alexa said. “But we haven’t gotten any complaints because they didn’t have that functionality before.”
However, physicians in the Dickinson County Healthcare System do have the added functionality of being able to view images on their mobile devices with a zero-footprint viewer.
On the ground or in the cloud
Another big consideration when upgrading is whether to have on-site storage or use the cloud.
Michael Cannavo, an imaging IT consultant, said that while a lot of facilities are embracing software as a service so money can be taken from the operating budget instead of more limited capital budgets, he recommends that facilities don’t rely 100 percent on cloud storage.
“If the network connection to the cloud goes out for any reason, it’s like the engine being taken out of your car,” Cannavo said. “You need a hybrid system, with a small-scale server on-site.”
Hospitals, especially in rural areas, also need to factor in the availability of high-speed networks, in order to have a cloud-based system that runs on the same speeds as one on-site.
