If you have ever had to stop by the hospital to pick up an X-ray film before visiting your physician, this inconvenience is now a thing of the past. Catholic Medical Center is the first facility in Southern New Hampshire to be 100% digital, meaning no more films, in the acquisition and storage of all medical images including radiology and cardiology. What makes this possible is technology known as Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS). PACS is an image-based information system for the storage, communication, archiving, display, distribution and manipulation of radiographic images.
PACS allows physicians and clinical staff to electronically send images to hospital-based, remote or off-site locations, allowing them to view radiology images and reports through a web browser. Physicians can now access and share patient information in real time resulting in patients having immediate access to specialized opinions from the appropriate professionals.
Within the next six months, the storage and database capabilities of PACS will replace current patient X-ray films. PACS offers patients and physicians several advantages:
- Data storage allows a comparison review of past and present images. In some cases, a voice clip summary of a radiologist’s dictated interpretation of the examination is attached.
- No longer will there be a need for hospitals or doctors offices to keep extensive film libraries either on-site or in storage facilities.
- Images and reports are permanently stored on hard drives for retrieval. As a result, replacement copies can be easily re-created on CD-ROM rather than on film.
Another benefit of PACS technology allows images to be compared to or combined with other electronic patient data including laboratory reports, patient records and non-radiological studies such as electrocardiograms. This increases a physician’s access to all aspects of a patient’s care, ultimately providing better diagnosis and treatment. Physicians and patients benefit from reduced reporting time. Improved patient care is achieved because physicians will no longer need to wait for film images to be processed and delivered. In an acute care situation such as a visit to an operating room or emergency room, immediate, life-saving decisions can be made. Equally important is that patients no longer need to pick up X-ray films from a hospital and transport them to a doctor’s office.