Radiologists are taking note regarding the next round of federal financial incentives for health IT adoption, known as Stage 2 of Meaningful Use. Stage 1 didn’t affect radiologists as much as they’ll find in Stage 2. The biggest impact will be on security and capacity concerns.
What might impact radiologists more is the fact that they will be required to send patients a report of their diagnostic tests within 24 hours of the procedure. If your IT department is currently struggling with various Meaningful Use provisions, you’ve got a lot in common with others just like you.
What isn’t known yet is whether or not a patient will also be required to have access to their medical image within 24 hours as well. Some in the industry believe that it will simply be a determination made by each individual healthcare provider, which might cause some confusion later.
Another aspect of Stage 2 that has some in the industry worried is the requirement that doctors have at least 10 percent of their patient’s records, which includes the images and reports with them, through electronic healthcare records links. It appears that if healthcare providers’ PACS are not up to the most basic industry standard, a new solution will be in order for stage 2.
One of the major issues regarding the sharing of medical images so prevalent in Stage 2 is that the imaging software vendors who are deeply planted in healthcare institutions across the U.S. have a history of leaving out any type of sharing tools. The reason for this is because the vendors didn’t believe patients would have to download complicated and proprietary viewers just to be able to get access to the image itself.
What these vendors failed to recognize is that your patients don’t view medical imaging the same way as specialists do, therefore, they don’t need all the bells and whistles that come with proprietary viewers. What’s expected to happen in Stage 2 is a turnaround for radiologists. For instance, currently, radiologists interpret their data to the patient’s primary care physician, who then is able to explain, in laymen’s terms, what is going on in the image. Stage 2 will probably require radiologists to do some of the explaining to the patient.
For healthcare providers like you who are thinking they might have to completely upgrade their PACS due to the changes coming in Stage 2, there could be a less expensive answer, and it’s all about vendor neutral archiving, or VNA. Not all PACS integrate very efficiently with electronic health records, and there are a variety of reasons for this.
More and more healthcare providers are overhauling to more VNA-specific PACS to avoid the massive amounts of money it will cost to move out their old PACS and into a new one. If this sounds appealing to you, there is a low-cost, high-quality solution you should consider.
Former radiology professionals who know the needs of the industry, especially those in rural areas where resources are limited led the way at OffSite Image Management, Inc. in creating cutting edge solutions. OffSite solutions fit the VNA profile, which meets the needs of many healthcare practices that are struggling to keep up with Meaningful Use. Contact us today at Offsite to help you find the solution that meets your needs.
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