According to a 2012 enterprise imaging report from KLAS, a marketing research company, healthcare providers are really focusing on getting their images to the right people in the fastest time possible. How are they doing this? According to the report, most providers are looking at vendor neutral archiving or PACS-centric solutions.
Regardless of the options they choose for the best PACS system, image storage is a must. Providers must also be presented with options that allow them to manage their images at the same time.
Healthcare providers using Philips and GE hardware have really taken interest in solutions
that use the best PACS system available. KLAS interviewed many providers and found that just over a quarter of them are taking a strategy that includes seeking out a vendor neutral archiving framework. This is a very popular option for hospitals with 500 or more beds. About the same amount of providers in the report said they are taking steps toward a strategy that would likely include a PACS-centric solution for their archiving needs. However, most of the pro PACS providers are hospitals with fewer than 500 beds.
Providers using Merge and Agfa hardware are leaning toward a vendor neutral solution, whereas Fuji, GE and Philips users are looking at vendor neutral archiving.
What positive impact does the vendor neutral approach have? First, look at the challenges hospitals face when it comes time to adopting an image data center, especially hospitals with a multi-site environment. These are the type of providers that have the most to gain from a vendor-neutral form of archiving because they don’t run into compatibility issues when sharing images across departments.
It’s not uncommon for hospitals to change out their PACS and go with a different vendor. When a vendor neutral archiving system isn’t in place, this can cause major problems.
A PACS-centric solution to getting images to the right people, safely and in as little time as possible involves using offsite or onsite short term and long term storage options, as well as disaster recovery services and IT support. The best PACS system will give the provider automatic upgrades to workstations without having it be a hassle to the provider’s IT staff. In fact, the best PACS solutions involve no heavy lifting on the part of the provider.
OffSite Image Management, Inc., is a proud provider of both vendor neutral archiving and PACS solutions. OffSite clients come in all shapes and sizes, but the company has a focus on rural providers that often don’t have the same resources as the big, urban hospital groups. However, these rural facilities are held to the same federal healthcare regulations and the patients deserve the same quality of care as those in urban centers. OffSite’s solutions can provide that level of quality to the rural providers, but without all the costs associated with top-level services.