Thursday, August 4, 2005
Time for a check-up?
There
are probably a few PACS out there that have yet to fulfill all of the
expectations.
So
how much time after "go-live" should it take to achieve the goals
that were originally set? Is it time for a check up?
There ís
probably nothing seriously wrong with the system, certainly not
enough to suggest it should be replaced. Maybe there are just little
things, details that can only come to light after you're up and
running. A year or more of run time is more than enough experience
with the system. By now you should be very close to achieving that
drop in film demand. You should know exactly what the problems are,
and how you're going to correct them. If not, maybe it's time
for a check-up.
Take
a look at these check-up questions and test yourself with the
answers.
Check-up
questions
How close are you to achieving the drop in film costs projected in those pre-PACS plans? Exactly what is keeping you from reaching that goal?
How many of the true image users in the referral community are still asking for film? What are your current plans for correcting that?
How close are you to eliminating the problems caused by paper in the workflow?
Have you thought of more than five ways to use the CD?
What can you do to reduce the report turnaround time even further?
Have you been successful establishing a "virtual seat" for the Emergency Department and high-value outpatient studies?
What features unique to PACS have your radiologists adopted in an effort to attract more referrals?
Besides sticking a display in the ED, what have you done to improve the workflow between the Emergency Department and Radiology?
Who spends more time per study on QC tasks, your technologists or the system administrator?
What is your long-term plan for the inevitable data migration?
Posted on 1:06:00 PM comment []
