Benefits of PACS
PACS replaces hard-copy based means of managing medical images, such as film archives. It expands on the possibilities of such conventional systems by providing capabilities of off-site viewing and reporting (distance education, tele-diagnosis). Additionally, PACS enables practitioners at various physical locations to view the same information simultaneously, (teleradiology). With the decreasing price of digital storage, PACS systems provide a growing cost and space advantage over film archives.
Better Efficiency for X-Ray Technicians
- 30 second processing compared to 90 seconds
- Drastically decrease retakes
- More time for other tasks
- Get more done with fewer staff
- See more patients in the same amount of time
- Eliminate need to hire additional staff as your practice grows
Enhance Physician's Efficiency in Clinic
- Eliminate waiting in clinic for film
- Access images from home
- Eliminate walking back and forth to lightbox during surgery
- Instant access to prior studies
Enhanced Workflow
- Physician waiting time for X-Rays in clinic and OR is reduced
- Eliminate transporting films to exam rooms for physicians
- Integration with EMR and PMS provides one file for all patient info
- View images in OR while in surgery
- Capture images in OR and view them in the clinic
- Access patient images from anywhere (home, office, etc.)
- Instant access to all historical studies
- Eliminate lost films and delays retrieving old films
- Improved digital device templating
Integration
A full PACS system should provide a single point of access for images and their associated data (i.e., it should support multiple modalities). A PACS system should also interface with existing hospital information systems: hospital information system (HIS) and radiology information system (RIS).
Interfacing between multiple systems provides a more consistent and more reliable data set.
- There is less risk of entering an incorrect patient ID for a study—the PACS will have received a list of scheduled studies from RIS, and can flag a warning if results are received for an unexpected patient.
- Data saved in the PACS can be tagged with unique patient identifiers (e.g., social security number, NHS number) obtained from HIS. PACS provides a robust method of merging data sets from multiple hospitals, even where the different centers use different ID systems internally.