DOCTORS HOSPITAL’S NEW PICTURE ARCHIVING AND COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM (PACS) ALLOWS FASTER DELIVERY OF MEDICAL IMAGES

____________________________________________________________________

Doctors Hospital is excited to announce the acquisition of a most technologically advanced patient care equipment, filmless picture archiving communication system or PACS.  Picture Archiving and Communications System, more commonly known as PACS, enables images such as x-rays and scans to be stored electronically and viewed on screens, so that doctors and other health professionals can access the information and compare it with previous images at the touch of a button.  By delivering more efficient imaging processes, the PACS system will contribute to the delivery of seamless integrated service within the hospital.

For the past 100 years, film has been almost the exclusive medium for capturing, storing, and displaying radiographic images. Film is a relatively fixed medium with usually only one set of images available. PACS technology allows for a near filmless process, with all  of the flexibility of digital systems. In storing, exchanging, retrieving and managing of medical images over a network, it also removes all the costs associated with hard film and releases valuable space currently used for storage. Most importantly, however, PACS has the potential to transform patients' experience of the care they receive.  Patient diagnostic images can be accessed by health care professionals at any time of day from anywhere with a connection to the PACS network.

The new system will be fully integrated into the facility and used with all imaging modalities including standard x-rays, radiotherapy, CT, MRI, Ultrasound, angiography, cardiology, fluoroscopy, Nuclear Medicine, dental and symptomatic mammography. The benefits of a PACS system are multifold; report turnaround time is reduced and patient care is improved, as physicians will no longer need to wait for film images to be processed and then analyzed and/or delivered. These benefits will be monumental for OR and ER cases, where immediate decisions are critical.   PACS will support clinicians in performing their roles and will contribute to a more efficient and advanced twenty first century health service.  The new PACS system will allow images to be shared outside individual trusts, for example, this feature would permit Doctors Hospital’s Emergency Room to access specialist opinion from anywhere in their network of computers instantaneously and, in due course, from any primary care and community setting.

PACS will enable Doctors Hospital clinicians to always be able to access the right image in the right place at the right time to support an efficient, high quality and well communicated diagnosis.  Digital imaging will allow faster delivery of medical images to the clinicians that evaluate and report on them.  This can lead to speedier availability of results.  It will also enable flexible viewing with the ability to manipulate images on screen, enlarging, rotating and viewing images in 3D, which means patients can be diagnosed more effectively.  In addition, important notes can now be saved on the images enabling the radiologist so he no longer has to search for the patient’s history or wait for a piece of paper to make its way to him.  Referring physicians, Doctors Hospital Physicians and healthcare professionals will have instant access to historic images and patient records allowing better collaboration over diagnoses.  The anytime-anywhere access from the comfort of home, office or anywhere else, will provide for ease of consultation between physicians who can instantly and simultaneously access images, reports, and audio report summaries throughout the hospital or on their office and home computer as well as through their Blackberry and palm pilot devices, through a secure web server.

Prior to using PACS, processing images for diagnosis for the hospital’s radiology department exams were printed on film, manually compiled with any previous studies performed on the patient and then hand carried by technologists to radiologists for interpretation.  

The new PACS will bring exciting changes to areas of the hospital where medical images are used; in fact, it will have a positive impact on any specialty that uses fixed or moving images.  In due course, it is hoped that PACS will be tightly integrated with the hospital’s Medical Record department, removing the traditional barrier between images and other patient records, providing a single source for clinical information.

The system can be configured to automatically acquire all prior images, which become available in the patient's virtual folder in the PACS. Finally, patients will benefit because they will no longer need to bring their x-rays to their physicians. For those situations where films are still needed, the hospital will have the ability to print images.
Doctors Hospital is excited to provide clinicians and patients with a filmless picture archiving communication system that will significantly improve patient care. The new system is part of Doctors Hospital’s strategic plan focusing heavily on excellence in physician services and patient care.

#end#