What’s New With PACS Certification?.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) might not sound like a bill that would impact electronic medical health records, but it certainly did. Signed into law in 2009, the ARRA created incentives for hospital to adopt technology suited for electronic medical records (EMR). To that effect, meaningful-use guidelines were developed for hospitals to follow and try to achieve within five years of the ARRA’s adoption.

Medical facilities have rapidly adopted electronic health records with PACS systems that allow for the storage and sharing of medical images. To ensure that the guidelines are being followed, an international, non-profit organization based in the U.S. has developed certification programs to assist medical personnel in developing support for their PACS and EMR systems.

The international organization, called PARCA (PACS Administrators Registry and Certification Association), specializes in developing certification programs for healthcare imaging and IT professionals dealing with PACS and EMR. Late last year, PARCA developed and introduced the Certified Professional EMR Specialists (CPEMS) certification and the Certified Healthcare Enterprise Architect (CHEA) certification. People who earn the CPEMS certification will have displayed suitable knowledge in electronic health records and how medical facilities use them to their advantage. CHEA-certified individuals are focused on image enabling and have skills in hands-on troubleshooting.

PACS administrators are vital components in the healthcare industry as technology has become increasingly important and more complex industry-wide. PACS administrators are behind successful imaging informatics, which are the backbone of PACS. Certified individuals, including those certified through PARCA, are experts at information technology and clinical healthcare. In order to achieve success in creating a functional PACS, there has to be a clear path of communication with radiologists and other healthcare professionals. Also important is the extensive knowledge of diagnostic processes, workflow and analysis procedures. PARCA certified individuals have these qualifications.

The PARCA president said recently that the new certifications are an “extension to existing PARCA certification,” which has been successful in giving imaging and IT professionals a platform to show their qualifications. He also said the new PACS certification and EMR certification gives healthcare imaging professionals an avenue to expand their expertise, which will be a great asset to healthcare facilities that are rolling out their new electronic medical records solutions.

Healthcare facilities are held to certain requirements under the ARRA. With certified individuals behind the PACS and EMR projects, meeting those requirements becomes much easier.

PACS and EMR solutions once had to exist on two different systems, which required distinct hardware and viewing stations for each of them. With technological improvements and with more experience with the systems, imaging and IT professionals are developing better ways to share and store images and still meet the requirements set forth in ARRA.

OffSite Image Management, Inc., is a company that knows the ins and outs of the regulations healthcare facilities must follow when developing their PACS and EMR system. OffSite’s vendor neutral archiving approach uses an open architecture design, which integrates seamlessly with applications. With this approach, healthcare facilities don’t have to worry about their future storage requirements.