Radiologists, administrators and IT professionals have worked hard to refine the acquisition, manipulation and storage of diagnostic images. But what about the special needs of referring physicians who increasingly want to access radiological images along with reportsincluding 3D renderings? Surprisingly, its not all that complicated.
The healthcare enterprise houses scores of disparate clinical IT systems. A precious few systems talk to each other, but many others dont communicate readily. Connecting disparate IT systems can streamline clinical workflow and improve patient care. But how?
While large medical hospitals, academic medical centers and health systems have traditionally been the earliest adopters for cutting-edge imaging technologies, community hospitals reap the benefits as the next level of adopters of imaging and IT to balance the needs of the community with delivering better patient care, controlling costs and increasing business and referrals.
Community hospitals that add new clinical services to better meet local needs can garner multiple benefits ranging including improved patient care and increased revenue. This month, Health Imaging & IT visits a pair of community hospitals that added new service lines to their portfolio to better meet local needs. Their business models provide a sound roadmap for other sites.
The halcyon days of ensured financial success simply by virtue of being the community hospitals radiology department are a thing of the past. Market pressures from independent imaging centers, other medical specialties utilization of imaging modalities, and targeted reimbursement cuts for imaging procedures from government and private payors require radiology departments to aggressively compete for patients.
1.5T MRI scanners are maintaining their foothold, supported by imaging enhancements and more powerful gradients that are helping to decrease exam time, streamline department workflow and improve image resolution across a wide spectrum of neurological, cardiovascular, musculoskeletal and oncological imaging.
Digital radiography, which comprises both computed radiography (CR) and direct radiography (DR), has gained strong market acceptance as a preferable alternative to screen-film x-ray. The reasons for this favorable reception vary, with perhaps the biggest driver being the growing demand from clinicians, patients and institutions for the digital diagnostic imaging recordaccomplished via image information systems such as PACS and RIS.
Fueled by promising clinical studies, computer-assisted detection (CAD) technology continues to improve early lung cancer detection: greater sensitivity, fewer false-positives.
With the ever-increasing emphasis on integrating healthcare IT solutions across the healthcare enterprise, CD and DVD recorders with their widespread and evolving capabilities have managed to fill much-needed niches within various image-dependent departmentsparticularly radiology, pathology and cardiology.
Healthcare, like most of the U.S. economy, is at a crossroads. In order to prosper in an environment of increasing constraints and controlled costs, while feeding the need to enhance quality and outcomes, more proficient use of information technology (IT) in healthcare is needed.
