How Vendor Neutral Viewer Technology is Pushing Productivity
“IT” and “simplification” aren’t often two words that work well together. However, when it comes to
strategic planning and improving patient care, these two words are finding a bind in vendor neutral processes, such as vendor neutral viewing.
There is a push to consolidation strategies in many healthcare IT departments today, and the goal is often aligned with better business continuity and disaster recovery. However, better access to medical images also makes that list of goals, which is why the vendor neutral viewer capability is becoming more of a path to that goal.
If you’ve been researching consolidation efforts, you’re likely to have come across cloud-based solutions by now. Vendor neutral archiving (VNA) efforts have been widely distributed through the cloud as a way to bring down the cost of IT administration, but also to provide better gateways to access to stored data.
Improved clinical quality is the result of more clinical viewing, workflow and storage consolidation. However, such efficiencies can’t be gained without the universal viewer. The universal viewer, or vendor neutral viewer, offers expanded standards support and more flexible workflow. It also improves enterprise imaging workflow and security tools.
An added benefit that might not be at the top of all IT departments’ list is the availability of patient records through a patient portal that allows them easier access to their images and other data. This is part of an ongoing patient-focused initiative that is quickly becoming the norm for many patients as they seek out healthcare solutions, often from multiple facilities.
The fact that more patients are seeking out help from disparate facilities is also why the vendor neutral viewer is becoming a go-to solution. When these facilities each have support from different vendors, accessing images can be a huge roadblock. Proprietary viewers, the norm in most cases, now have a workaround via the VNA technology that is offered in the cloud.
Aside from having been freed from the shackles of a proprietary viewer, the full value of a vendor neutral viewing solution opens up a world of possibilities in regard to image access on the go. For instance, with the right cloud-based VNA solution vendor, you can view medical images on a smartphone or tablet computer from anywhere you can get a Wi-Fi signal.
Breaking away from the central PACS archive and having access to and ownership of images via an offsite source is incredibly appealing to providers operating in a multisite environment. Management issues are negated because the vendor takes responsibility for any upgrades to the software, and there are no hardware issues for your onsite IT team to manage because it’s all the responsibility of the vendor. This represents a major savings in time management as well as cost management.
Furthermore, for the rural provider who doesn’t have access to the highly trained personnel to manage IT systems, this is an outlet to industry-leading solutions without the hassle.
At OffSite Image Management, Inc., we’ve spearheaded a VNA solution that puts you in touch with the images you need to see and when you need to see them. Contact us today and let’s go over the details on how we can improve your services and save you money.