Scalability Through Offsite Vendors Brings Efficiencies
Hospitals once focused on volume have for years known how important it is to focus on value instead, especially
considering that patient satisfaction surveys, should they dip too low, can result in forfeited reimbursements. There are also penalties for 30-day readmissions, which means value truly has surpassed a focus on volume. This transition is being felt in radiology, which means more and more providers are looking at scalability in efforts to lower costs and improve their services.
Outpatient-based imaging services have been a positive part of the process for reimbursements, but some hospitals are finding pressure in this area as well because of the imaging centers that are quite attractive to consumers that have higher deductibles in their insurance plans.
To get a grip on what’s causing the pressure, many providers are finding success through standardization. In fact, some providers believe that the future of hospital-based radiology is in standardization throughout entire hospital systems. Professionals who hold this opinion say it’s what will lead to lowering costs while improving efficiency and patient outcomes.
Standardization is helping to save big money for some providers, including Scripps, a San Diego-based group comprising four hospitals and 28 out-patient sites. They’ve saved more than $5 million on PACS and supply standardization, shared staffing and system capital purchasing. The CEO of Scripps said they went from a decentralized hospital company to moving toward a system of care, a nice departure from a siloed hospital system.
Part of the process involved pulling out systems, like siloed and separately selected PACS, RIS and imaging equipment, which failed to communicate with the other in a proper fashion.
Miscommunication is a big issue with providers today due to the fact that proprietary hardware and software doesn’t “play nice” with disparate systems. Instead of purchasing new PACS, providers are moving toward an offsite method of archiving medical images. When it comes to scalability, moving everything offsite has a host of advantages, not the least of which is that the provider can gain access to images they need regardless of what type of viewer they’re using.
Another benefit of using an offsite vendor is that you have limitless scalability options. As your need for medical image archiving grows, which it surely will in the coming years, you can increase the capacity at the vendor’s data center. Furthermore, these data centers offer disaster recovery solutions that keep you in touch with your valuable data, regardless of what natural disasters might be occurring in your region.
Scalability is what many expensive image storing hardware providers aren’t able to offer. You either pay too much for something you don’t need or you get stuck with a system that will require time-consuming and expensive upgrades later. With offsite vendors, you don’t have that problem.
OffSite Image Management, Inc. is setting the pace for how providers are accessing and archiving their medical images today. Contact us and let’s discuss how we can make you more productive.