Medical Imaging Evolves During the Pandemic.

In times of strife, much is learned. Nobody knows this better than healthcare workers who have stepped up and delivered incredible services during the pandemic as hospitals are flooded with patients desperately in need of care. For medical imaging professionals, the lessons learned through this unprecedented event have shed light on day-to-day operations.

As elective procedures were put on hold, the focus in many radiology departments switched to the COVID-19 positive patients. This created a bit of a backlog of medical imaging that is now being carried out alongside the exams for pandemic patients. This has caused departments the world over to re-examine how they approach workflow.

Hardware Hotseat

Few medical imaging departments can completely keep up with the latest and greatest hardware that comes out with such frequency. However, holding on to antiquated hardware is also not reasonable due to the lower rates of productivity these technologies offer. The pandemic certainly pushed many healthcare providers to reconsider their aging hardware and how they could make changes that improved workflow without busting the budget.

A pandemic-related example of that would be CT scanners used for examining the lungs of COVID-19 patients. This technology has gotten faster in recent years, so facilities with older systems definitely felt the pinch in productivity. The same can be said of older MRI and ultrasound equipment, which has also seen many advancements in recent years. These machines are also being used to treat COVID-19 and other patients.

Better PACS

Anotherway to boost productivity is to deconstruct your PACS by taking a hybrid or completely cloud-based approach. Gaining faster access to images is one of the main advantages of utilizing a cloud-based approach. There are also stability advantages to be gained via this approach, because when you leave all the upgrading, maintenance and management tasks up to the vendor, you are free to do more with your mission-critical tasks.

From integration to medical information systems, such as the EMR, RIS or HIS, to vendor neutral archiving advantages, the perks of outsourcing PACS to a trusted cloud vendor are many. Taking these services offsite allows you to get more bang for your buck and potentially even save money in the process.

At OffSite Image Management, we’ve developed different PACS packages that are a custom fit for different medical imaging centers. There is no reason to blindly accept a one-size-fits-all solution from a different vendor; we offer solutions that you need without making you pay for services you aren’t going to use.

Get more information about how we can assist you in improving productivity and staying on top of your workflow by contacting us today.