The Maria Parham Medical Center in Henderson, N.C., has installed a new picture archiving and communication system, part of a larger, long-term investment in healthcare IT that lays the foundation for an electronic health record.
Hospital officials have integrated McKesson's Horizon Medical Imaging PACS with its RIS system and expect to go live within 45 days.
“We are a small community hospital, but we have an image and information volume of a hospital twice our size,” said Randy Williams, the hospital's director of information technology. “Our market is continually changing, and we needed a healthcare IT strategy that included a flexible, scalable PACS to meet these demands and enable us to provide the greatest level of physician and patient satisfaction."
Officials say the integration of the McKesson solution has had a positive effect on care given at Maria Parham Medical Center. The facility can now provide access to medical images and reports as part of the enterprise-wide EHR, workflow has been improved and physician satisfaction has increased, while delays experienced waiting for patient information have declined.
“All the information our radiologists need in order to give the most appropriate diagnosis – patient history, previous images, surgery, contrast, route – is right at their fingertips, and we can place images and results immediately in physicians’ hands no matter where they are,” said Bonnie Howell, director of imaging at Maria Parham Medical Center. “The ability to review a patient’s prior history before we start a radiology exam is crucial for patient safety, and the speed of our workflow has improved dramatically. Our technologists are faster, our radiologists are faster, and our ER doctors are faster.”
