What Can we Learn About PACS From a NYC Example?.

PACS Exchanges Could Shore-Up Inefficiencies

There are often telling reminders of how badly things can go in a healthcare facility when information fails to flow properly from one PACS to another. An example of this comes from a university medical center in New York where the senior manager of information management presented the story of his brother who ended up in a wheelchair.

Patients rely on a quick yet accurate diagnosis of their issue(s) to get on the road to recovery. The patient often goes from doctor to doctor until the right professional is able to analyze all the data and the patient and correctly identify what is wrong.

In the case of the information manager, his brother went through this process for two years until a doctor finally diagnosed him with multiple sclerosis, at which time he was already permanently disabled. The manager said he believes his brother’s life was ruined by inefficiencies in the healthcare system. The moral of his story is that improving patient care at the community level is critical.

In an effort to prevent this from happening in their extended community, the hospital is working to construct a private health information exchange that links 200 practices and nearly 2,000 clinicians with 26 different electronic health record systems. It’s with exchanges like these that information fails to get hung up on proprietary systems where the data is unreadable.

An exchange is a perfect example of how a PACS system should be able to communicate with other systems in a scenario where information flows quickly and easily. An exchange allows the transfer of information, without hang-ups, so that patients can get the treatment they need to recover and improve their lives.

In the case of the university hospital’s exchange, they recognized that working with some of the electronic health records systems was going to be a difficult process, but they went forward with them anyway as a service to the community. The process also involves other technical challenges and cultural changes that can be expected in just about any exchange situation. For instance, some physicians are reluctant to change; they don’t want to share their data and would prefer to maintain the status quo.

The status quo really doesn’t work, yet there are still providers out there today that prefer to use CD burning technology, even though there are more efficient and cost-effective processes available to them. By migrating information to the cloud, providers can completely erase their need for antiquated technology like CD burning.

OffSite Image Management, Inc. has successfully established health image exchanges in Missouri, Kansas, Louisiana, and Michigan. Our DICOM exchange of radiological data across various vendor platforms has improved efficiencies for providers who have joined the exchanges. If your PACS isn’t allowing you to be as efficient as you know you could be, contact us today and find out how we can help.