As the healthcare industry became increasingly more tied to the digital age, patient information began to disperse into a fragmented situation. This includes medical images. The problem is that somewhere along the line, healthcare organizations became more system-centric than patient-centric.
Coming to the rescue is a push toward a vendor neutral archiving system. Through this vendor neutral approach, people no longer get transferred from one department to another. Instead, the information can be accessed in one central location. Patient data, including images, is available across multiple departments.
Data silos are getting a new look due to the provisions set forth in healthcare modernization reforms issued by Congress. Taking the lead on this venture are people working on health information exchanges (HIE), which helps ease the roadblocks that healthcare providers experience in their data flow. The problem that many of them are running into is that they aren’t always successful in building a system that is sustainable.
Another issue is the availability of medical images through HIE. Doctors and specialists need patient images available to them as they explain the health situation of the patient. Without a vendor neutral archiving system available to them, gaining quick access to these images, especially if they’re stored on a system in another facility, can be next to impossible.
Medical professionals using a vendor neutral archiving system understand the inherent value of them, especially in gaining access to patient data, which ultimately leads to better patient care through more efficient diagnoses. The focus with most VNAs is on data stewardship rather than data ownership. It is not that there is no longer any importance tied to contracts, interoperability standards or accreditation, however, a tighter focus on shared goals between providers goes a long way in making the objective of better patient care a reality. VNAs certainly play a part in this objective.
Healthcare providers don’t want to hassle with multiple integration points. When they are provided with a vendor neutral archiving system, they are paired with a single integration point to the HIE. Some refer to this method as their single enterprise repository because the VNA has allowed them to share data within the registry-utilizing standard.
It’s not all about the doctors and specialists; patients want/need access to their data/images. Not all patients seek treatment on referrals, which means they’ll need to have access to their data and share it with their specialist. The VNA method allows them an online access point for quick and easy viewing. This access to information is what is viewed by industry insiders to drive long-term sustainability of HIEs.
OffSite Image Management, Inc., knows all about the value of VNAs and they’ve produced one of their own. OffSite professionals are well equipped to offer what radiology departments, and their patients, need on a daily basis. The solutions they’ve designed are scalable and have no storage limits. Data is always available through the use of multiple level IV data centers and you can trust them to provide the images you need when you need them.