Most IT administrators in the healthcare industry aren’t as familiar with health image exchange as they are with health information exchange (HIE). However, when it comes to sharing and storing
radiological images, health image exchange should be on the list of technologies to embrace.
The health image exchange should be part of the HIE. Practices have taken many approaches to developing their HIEs. Vendors offering electronic health records options, national exchange network services and accountable care organizations have been utilized. Government-sponsored exchanges, either through state, local or regional venues have also seen some use.
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology has been instrumental in overseeing how patient information is shared and stored. This has provided deeper understanding of what various exchange services are available from state to state. Every state has an HIE representative that is available for consult. Each state’s service provider might be a little different as they are not in the same stage of development.
For better results in acquiring an HIE with excellent health image exchange capabilities, IT administrators should know the mission and the goals of the practice, which will help them in determining which HIE provider best fits the needs of the practice.
Any vendor offering HIE services should be able to provide the healthcare provider with information regarding the sustainability of their HIE, what internal requirements are to be met, any indirect returns investment that might be available and the risks involved with partnering with the vendor’s HIE and health image exchange.
What questions should a healthcare provider ask of the various vendors offering HIE solutions? First, ask if their solution includes HIE capabilities within their electronic health records exchange. Privacy and security are among the top priorities today, so make sure to ask about the storage facility and
whether or not it qualifies as a level IV center. Does the vendor charge for upgrades to the HIE? Most vendors will charge for monthly maintenance, so ask what that charge will be.
When physicians have better access to radiological images through a health image exchange, there are fewer instances of lost files and better, faster access to the images they need to see to treat their patients. Hospitals struggled for a long time technologically, to come up with a way to send images
from hospital to hospital as the systems they used were different. What was needed was a vendor neutral method to transfer images so the professionals could confer over patient data. With so many hospitals using different picture archiving systems, the battle was definitely one fought uphill.
But this is changing thanks to a company offering better ways to store and share medical images.
OffSite Image Management, Inc., offers vendor neutral archiving services that fit with just about every
healthcare operation because the solution is built with an open architecture design. There is no worry about integrating OffSite’s solution with current technology and software being used at a facility. There is also no concern for future storage requirements.