Three Ways Tools Like Vendor Neutral Archiving are Changing Workflows at Hospitals … Large and Small.

Vendor Neutral Archiving Leading the Way to Better Image Management

The amount of data being generated by the healthcare community is not decreasing. In fact, there is a need to find larger, more reliable spaces to store healthcare data, including medical images, which can be quite massive. Vendor neutral archiving is giving providers a more nuanced approach to managing these images.

One of the biggest strengths of vendor neutral archiving is in its ability to offer a centralized location for images, which is a huge perk given the PACS providers are using today need a hand with more relevant technology. An even bigger strength of vendor neutral archiving (VNA) is to work in concert with PACS to offer a sharing and storing solution that meets business continuity best practices.

What is beginning to be a game changer is the use of VNA with cloud-based image management hosting. Image departments across the globe are realizing the benefits of taking all the responsibility of managing the data off their shoulders and putting it in the hands of IT radiology professionals working with cloud-based tools.

Internal image sharing has been an issue with hospitals that have different vendors for PACS located in disparate departments. VNA was first brought in to remedy the problems providers had related to proprietary issues. Due to the architecture that differs per vendor, the sharing capabilities are lacking. However, VNA helps them overcome that issue. Now, providers are not only freed from proprietary restrictions across departments, they’re using VNA and cloud-based solutions to share images across state lines.

Working with a cloud-based image management specialist, you should also have access to disaster recovery perks as the servers are located offsite, and in some cases (preferably) there are multiple datacenters involved in the process, which means you have even more assurance that the data you need will always be available.

Most healthcare IT professionals will say they are looking for vendors that can offer solutions that improve workflow efficiency, and VNA offering in the cloud is offering that. In fact, most VNA customers will attest to the fact that they are satisfied with their decision to move to the cloud, even if they were nervous about the prospect at first.

While the accessibility, disaster recovery, and ability share data are there, so too are the cost savings. If you’re shopping for an offsite vendor for your image needs, make sure you’re partnering with one that can guarantee cost savings and not hide fees that show up later.

OffSite Image Management, Inc., is a company that works with providers of all sizes. Our solutions are scalable, and we never hide any of our fees. Rural providers have for years counted on our solutions to assist them in gaining industry-leading solutions while paying a fraction of the cost of a new PACS. Contact us today and let’s talk about your facility’s needs.