Many healthcare systems are finding their general PACS and cardiology PACS are both aging and their image storage is reaching capacity. How do the diagnostic imaging departments address the needs of their cardiologists and radiologists?

A rural community hospital located in northeast Oregon, Good Shepherd Medical Center is a busy 49-bed facility that serves the town of Hermiston and its surrounding communities.Given their rural location, Good Shepherd is a heavy transfer facility located near the junction of two state highways and often the first stop for trauma patients from traffic accidents in the area. These patients, along with those who require specialized treatment or care for extended periods, are often transferred to larger facilities in Washington or Portland. For this reason, Good Shepherd required a solution that easily transferred images across multiple locations. With its Web-based, distributed architecture, Intelerad was able to meet the needs of the hospital, deploying its IntelePACS and InteleViewer solutions back in 2002.With only one radiologist on staff at a time, diagnostic imaging staff must work as efficiently as possible to ensure patients receive the highest levels of care. To enhance productivity, Good Shepherd integrated IntelePACS with PowerScribe 360, Nuance’s dynamic radiology reporting and communication platform.“The integration has dramatically cut down our turnaround time,” said Ann Richards, Good Shepherd’s HIS analyst and PACS administrator. “Whereas it formerly took anywhere between 12 to 24 hours to deliver a report, radiologists’ average turnaround time over the course of a week has been five and a half minutes. It’s been a dramatic reduction.”