Saving Money and Improving Workflow With a PACS Solution.

Without the technology in PACS, radiologists and other imaging specialists wouldn’t be able to manage their MRI, CT, X-ray, ultrasound, tomography and other types of images as effectively as they do today. As PACS have evolved, they offer more to healthcare professionals, giving them options for offering better patient care. But not all PACS are created alike, which sometimes can create management/communication issues.

Among the biggest complaints you’ll hear about PACS from healthcare professionals is the cost involved in purchasing and implementing a PACS solution. The second most frequent feedback you hear about the technology is that it takes a specially trained crew to maintain the system. That’s a complaint often heard in rural areas where personnel are in high demand, yet difficult to find.

Migration Woes

Migrating data can be a particularly cumbersome challenge, especially if you’re migrating from a PACS to a VNA in an effort to sidestep the communication issues that occur between disparate PACS working with proprietary technology.

For facilities with terabytes of data to migrate, the process can take a long time, which adds to the cost of the process, not to mention that it also hampers access to files that physicians and radiologists need quickly.

There are also issues with DICOM headers that contain metadata, which is often patient identification information. These headers are separate from the image, which can be a big hassle when migrating data and everything become separated. Working with the right PACS vendor can alleviate these problems.

Choosing Better VNA Solutions

To reduce the likelihood of experiencing PACS and VNA problems, it pays to seek out true VNA solutions, which can mean a number of things, but most likely the following:

• It’s browser agnostic
• Support API-level integration
• Supports DICOM and non-DICOM content
• RIS updates spread automatically
• It is hardware independent
• Aggregates query results from many disparate PACS

When you partner with a vendor that offers true VNA, you get all of that, which can provide you better PACS support and ultimately, less complications down the line.

Better PACS Options

OffSite Image Management offers cloud-based and hybrid PACS solutions that can be customized to fit your needs.

Let’s say you’re a small imaging center and you don’t need unlimited routing, 3D TOMO BTO compliant technology, multiple FDA-approved workstations or Advanced logistic expression – you wouldn’t need the top-tier Enterprise PACS we offer at Offsite. Rather, you’d probably be more in line with our Power PACS package, which includes an all-in-one hybrid solution with all hardware and software included. You also get structured reporting, some storage and the ability to import documents.

Find out more about our fully hosted PACS solutions, modality worklist and DICOM data coercion by contacting us today.