Healthcare professionals are tasked with caring for their patients, but they are also using various forms of communication and imaging technology to send and receive information from other professionals to provide better patient care. If you’re asking too much of your PACS, such as using it to try to manage a large number of metrics aside from handling a volume of images and related data, you could be experiencing a radiology workflow issue.
Impacting Lives With Improved Workflow
Collaboration is more crucial than ever because it can greatly impact radiology workflow. It’s also critical in providing high levels of patient care. The collaborative effort also extends to patients who are more involved in the process, as is evident in the interest in patient portals where they can view imaging and exam notes.
Chief information officers have weighed in on the topic and have concluded that improving radiology imaging workflow, which includes collaboration efforts, “directly contributes to effectively diagnosing patients.” Nearly half of the CIOs surveyed say their imaging IT solutions “could be easier to use as providers distribute, view and manage images.” They believe that improving workflow and collaboration will have value-based advantages for patients as well as the bottom lines for healthcare facilities.
Hitting Timelines
A simple example highlights the issue: a critical test needs to be delivered to a nursing unit. Another 15 minutes is added to the timeframe for a nurse to contact the physician. Within another 30 minutes, the physician should have an action plan developed.
Automation can help reduce that timeframe. An effective radiology workflow and the right technology have been found to reduce the turnaround time for offering up critical results from 17 to 10 minutes for one provider.
Cloud-Based Assistance
Viewing images isn’t always a quick and easy process, especially when working with disparate PACS. Anything that can be done to take away the roadblocks to simplify accessing images should be considered in your radiology workflow strategy. Vendor neutral archiving (VNA) has been a huge component in many strategies where workflow is the target.
Partnering with a vendor of VNA and other cloud-based services can be the key to reaching your radiology workflow goals. For example, the right vendor will offer PACS that support your needs for years to come and ensure you have a customized solution that fits your unique needs. The best vendors will also provide integrated solutions, including image storing and archiving, DICOM routing and manipulation, HL7 interfacing and industry-leading image sharing technology.
At OffSite Image Management, that’s what we offer. Viewing shouldn’t create a bottleneck in your radiology workflow, and we’ve developed solutions that give our clients unfettered access to images so they can serve patients faster and more accurately. For more information about our solutions, contact us today.
