In Part 1 of this post we covered report customization, accreditation standards and auto-population of measurements. Here are some additional tips on what to look for from a PACS Reporting System.
How simple is the workflow?
A PACS System should enhance and improve your ability to diagnose, treat, and manage your patients’ health. The simplicity or complexity of the PACS System you choose should be looked at before purchase to determine how usable the system is. The depth of features should be balanced with how the system helps you streamline and expedite your ability to deliver patient care.
Everything from how many mouse clicks are needed to generate a report to how easy your distribution options are should be weighed when making a decision. As a physician, you want to spend the least amount of time possible clicking through data to get to the specific patient info you need.
What are the distribution options for finalized reports?
There are a variety of options and methods for distributing diagnostic reports on your PACS System. Full-text reports can be sent to referring physicians and other specialists via the appropriate HIPAA-compliant web links or by emailing the full-text report. To protect patient health information, finalized reports that are sent via encrypted email are also in compliance with HIPAA regulations. Typically, a report can be reviewed online by simply logging on to the patient’s file or by going to the URL link. Patient reports can also be viewed and saved in a Portable Document Format (PDF) or a Word processor-compatible format. In addition, finalized reports can be integrated into electronic medical record (EMR) systems and electronic health record (EHR) systems.
How easy is the EMR integration?
The integration and deployment of both PACS and EMR systems into your patient care delivery process provide significant clinical benefits. The higher the integration into your care delivery process, the higher the Return On Investment (ROI) for these systems. Integrating your EMR and PACS System supports interconnected images from patient tests and the report.
It’s important to ask how easy or difficult the integration of your EMR system will be with the PACS Systems you are considering. Some PACS Systems require that patient identification and initial record creation must be accurate at the very onset – with minimal (if any) rework. As a result, this ability to enter the patient data correctly the first time around requires an attention to detail and an exact thoroughness on the part of your staff. Other PACS System providers can do the integration for you to minimize the workload for your staff. It helps to know the level of difficulty and cost when making a decision.
Some common errors when the integration is poorly handled include:
1) If a duplicate patient record is mistakenly created, it can affect your clinical decisions since you may be reviewing only the new (and second) EMR patient record. Without knowing you are actually looking at a duplicate record creation, you could easily miss pre-existing patient records or prior image reviews in your PACS system. It is critical to have all the clinical actions generated for a patient entered in a single visit.
2) A new encounter is added to the wrong patient’s record. This error creates the potential for completely corrupting the clinical decision support process by entering some other patient’s info into the wrong file.
EMR integration can provide tremendous benefits but the method used to link the two, and the level of difficulty to achieve the connection, should factor into your decision on which EMR or PACS System to choose.
