PACS Improves Patient Safety and Revenues for Rural-Urban Networks, Say Conference Presentations.

SAN DIEGO -- An advanced PACS can create multiple patient safety benefits for underserved rural populations, while also increasing revenues for the PACS owner, according to presentations at two recent conferences.

The conferences were the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE) 2006 annual meeting and the American Healthcare Radiology Administrators (AHRA) 2006 Electronic Imaging Conference. Katherine Leslie, B.S., RDMS, CRA, RT, (R) (CT) and Aaron Vizina, CNMT, RT, (N) made a poster presentation at the ACHE conference, while Leslie spoke on two successive days at the AHRA conference. All the presentations described how the architecture of the DR Systems PACS made it possible for a single PACS to serve a large urban-rural network of healthcare facilities.

Cascade Medical Imaging (CMI) -- a joint venture between Central Oregon Radiology Assoc., P.C. (CORA), a 12-doctor radiology practice in Bend, and Cascade Healthcare Community (CHC) -- owns the DR Systems PACS.

The network improved patient care in medically underserved rural areas in eastern Oregon, while also generating revenues for CMI.

The network boosts patient safety in the rural areas by both speeding and enhancing diagnosis and treatment, the ACHE poster showed. Because of the PACS' web-based design, the rural facilities now have around-the-clock access to reading radiologists. Previously, many of the facilities relied on traveling radiologists who only visited every few days. The Web access, which makes images and reports available from physicians' home or office computers as well as at the hospital, also speeds access to both current and archived studies, as well as patient records.

The PACS' voice clip feature is another outstanding capability that improves patient safety for the network's rural members, according to Leslie and Vizina. The feature dramatically speeds report turnaround time because the radiologist's iniital impressions are available on-line within minutes after reading. Without voice clips, referring physicians would have to wait at least several hours for a full written report to be generated and distributed.

Finally, the PACS improves patient safety by enabling digital reading of images, the poster stated. Unlike film images, digital images can be enhanced and manipulated by the radiologist for improved reading.

"There was a time when living rurally meant accepting a lower quality of radiological care," said Leslie, Imaging Services Project Director for CORA. "That time has past. The technology of our PACS system has made possible a level of care that would have been unthinkable not all that long ago in our region. As just one example, images from the rural hospitals are now read on the PACS within about three hours. Under the old scenario with traveling radiologists, it took an average of seven days."

The ACHE meeting was held March 27-30 in Chicago.

Leslie focused on the financial aspects of the urban-rural PACS network in her talks at the AHRA meeting, while also covering the network's patient safety benefits. She noted that CMI's projected 2005 revenue from the network was $342,000 for 49,688 procedures. Those numbers far exceed the figures that were originally projected for 2009. Revenues include a variety of fees-for-service negotiated with network members and based on their needs -- for example, per-report transcription fees and one-time, per-study archiving fees that cover unlimited access to the studies.

Leslie discussed cost savings from implementation of the PACS, as well. Costs saved included:

--$209,000 annual savings achieved by eliminating five FTEs (transcriptionists and medical records clerks).

--$100,000 annual savings achieved by moving the Web servers, digital archive, library of old films, and equipment for converting film X-rays to digital to an industrial park, instead of leasing equivalent space at CHC.

--$1.7 million revenue generated in 2005 alone by putting a new 16-slice PET/CT scanner in CHC space formerly used for film storage. Storing films did not generate any revenue for CHC.

The AHRA conference took place March 30-April 1 in Seattle.

About DR Systems

DR Systems, Inc. is the leading independent provider of film-free medical systems and paperless information systems for diagnostic imaging centers and hospitals. For 12 years, the company has helped more than 250 hospitals and imaging centers improve the management of patient information, eliminate film costs, and increase workflow speed, all while providing better clinical quality and patient care. DR Systems' unified PACS utilizes "Smart Client" technology to maximize efficiency and ease of use. The company's systems integrate numerous tools to improve financial performance and productivity, including: client-server and Web-based image, report and audio clip distribution; patented, automated hanging protocols for radiologists; and the report format preferences of individual referring physicians. For more information, call 800-794-5955 or visit www.dominator.com.