Many feel that the EMR is central to the health of the enterprise and promises to meet many needs. However, as stakeholders drill down into individual departments, there are areas where the EMR may fail to address the specific workflow of the caregivers in those specialties.

With digital radiology, PACS and RIS in use for 15 years or more at most US hospitals, a disparate system architecture is now the reality for most departments. Multiple PACS and mini-PACS populate the environment, resulting in inefficiencies, increased operating costs, and reduced throughput for departments.

The disparate system architecture existing in most radiology departments today has resulted from the addition of multiple, dedicated workstations and mini-PACS to the environment without adequate integration into the workflow.
 

Join Connie Ryan, Cardiology Resource Manager at Oklahoma State University Medical Center as she shares how OSUMC was successful in enhancing their physicians workflow and in increasing productivity in their echo lab with the GE Healthcare's Centricity Cardio Enterprise Solution (CCE).

Radiology departments have been seeking ways to work better-managing images from multiple PACS and multiple departments and seeking to increase radiologists' reading efficiency by delivering more information to their workstation. In a world of disparate PACS and multi-ology images, the notion of a universal workstation to deliver patient results efficiently is both a necessity and now - a reality.

Radiology departments have been seeking ways to work better—managing images from multiple PACS and multiple departments and seeking to increase radiologists' reading efficiency by delivering more information to their workstation. But in a world of disparate PACS and multi-ology images, what is the solution?

Lifespan is a five-hospital system in Providence, R.I., managing more than 500,000 radiology and cardiology exams per year. To balance the image management needs across departments, meet the daily demands of access to full clinical information across their health system with an eye on future participation in the Accountable Care initiative, Lifespan is embarking on a multi-year journey to leverage IT infrastructure as a strategic asset and utilize a combination of an enterprise vendor neutral archive coupled with archive neutral PACS for radiology, cardiology, endoscopy and other departments.