December 23, 2011 —Agfa HealthCare announced the addition of a meaningful use (MU) dashboard to the IMPAX Business Intelligence solution. The system contributes to demonstrating meaningful use of clinical data through its ability to actively monitor the thresholds outlined in Stage 1. Reports are generated through the IMPAX radiology information system (RIS) solution.
New functionality provides metrics on processes and workflow. Dashboards capture and illustrate health data and potential outcomes, as defined by MU requirements. The indicators are all customizable, with green, yellow and red bars that notify the user of how close they are to achieving compliance in each area.
Among the thresholds that facilities can select to monitor are the following:
- Demographic collection on 50 percent of all unique patients with individual monitoring on patient’s preferred language, gender, race, ethnicity and date of birth
- Recording of vital signs on 50 percent of all unique patients with individual monitoring on patients between the ages of 2 - 20 for height, weight, blood pressure, and body mass index (BMI)
- Growth chart plotting for patients between the ages of 2 - 20 for both height and weight against national statistics
- Recording of smoking status on 50 percent of all unique patients ages 13 and above
Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU), Portland, has been using IMPAX Business Intelligence to enhance efficiency, improve the patient experience and benchmark data. The system delivers measures that highlight opportunities to save costs, and is designed to help managers proactively improve data quality and integrity over time.
OHSU is now among the first healthcare systems in the United States to implement the meaningful use dashboard for meeting regulatory criteria and MU standards.
“Working with Agfa HealthCare we’ve been able to gather and organize data into a format that we can actually use and learn from,” said Erwin Schwarz, director of imaging services, OHSU. “In the midst of many new regulatory demands including meaningful use criteria, as well as at a time when we’re facing cuts in radiology departments, using an analytical tool such as IMPAX Business Intelligence has allowed us to optimize clinical, business and administrative data and hone in on where we need to improve. We can see what we are doing well, benchmark our data against other institutions, and achieve a higher level of patient and referring physician satisfaction.”
The system is part of Agfa’s advanced RIS and picture archiving and communications system (PACS) offering. It provides historical, current and predictive views of radiology operations in the form of real-time dashboards, management reports, and ad-hoc queries against an IMPAX data warehouse. All of this is done in a single browser window.
Healthcare providers can compile, organize and manage clinical, quality, financial and administrative data. They can also enhance efficiency and competitiveness, allowing administrators to analyze the workflow in order to achieve greater patient and physician satisfaction.
For example, the solution can be used to decrease patient wait times by zeroing in on where the workflow is inhibiting the patient flow. Additionally, facilities can monitor physician ordering to identify trends and assist in marketing efforts to the referring base.
Agfa will display the MU dashboard addition to IMPAX Business Intelligence in its booth, #8350, at RSNA 2011.
For more information: www.agfahealthcare.com
July 25, 2024 
