Phillipsburg, NJ (March 29, 2010) – INFINITT North America, a technology leader in RIS, PACS, Cardiology PACS, Mammo PACS and Advanced Visualization tools, announced the deployment of the INFINITT Cardiology PACS – a web-based suite of clinical and reporting tools for Cardiology, Cardiovascular and Vascular Imaging – at Warren Hospital in Phillipsburg, NJ.
The Cardiology PACS resides on the same database as the Radiology PACS at Warren, enabling clinicians to view radiology and cardiology studies from the same workstation, with a single sign on. The single-database solution consolidates IT infrastructure and eliminates numerous interface and integration issues.
“Clinicians can compare vascular studies with CT Angiography, or pull up multiple modalities at the Cardiology PACS workstation,” stated Angela Collins, Administrative Director of Radiology & Cardiovascular Services at Warren. “The technologists can see from the worklist if other types of studies have been done, and then assess a previous exam to locate regions of interest. Advantages like these reduce exam and patient wait times, and boost throughput to help generate additional revenue.”
Warren Hospital, a 214-bed community hospital, in Phillipsburg, NJ, is a longstanding customer of INFINITT, having converted to digital image management in radiology in 2002 with the Smart-PACS product, and upgrading to INFINITT G3 PACS in 2007.
“We wanted a comprehensive Cardiology solution that would consolidate images from the cath lab, the echo lab and the vascular lab, store them in digital (DICOM) format, and provide all the workflow and reporting tools we needed to go filmless (and mostly paperless). What INFINITT has provided goes beyond image management,” Ms. Collins said.
“The INFINITT Cardiology PACS has had a profoundly positive impact on the entire hospital — for the medical staff, the technical staff and for patient flow,” Ms. Collins continued. “The Cardiologists and Cardiovascular Surgeons are now some of Infinitt’s strongest proponents.”
The INFINITT Cardiology PACS includes more than 30 report templates with fields that are populated automatically from the study data. It saves the techs an inordinate amount of time, and eliminates manual errors.
The added Cardiology PACS functionality has also resulted in significant cost reductions, eliminating the cost of video tape, reducing off-site storage costs and saving $30,000 annually by eliminating transcription. With electronic signature, report turnaround time — which had been as long as 3-4 weeks for vascular studies — has dropped to less than one day.
From an administrative viewpoint, Ms. Collins most appreciates being able to pool data and analyze it for resource management, staffing and budget decisions. “We now have monthly statistical reports for the cath lab, the echo lab and the vascular lab, tracking exam volume, number of exams per technologist, and other things we used to count manually,” says Ms. Collins.
“The INFINITT Cardiology PACS has cut the time it takes for accreditation/re-accreditation drastically. I’m able to pull together the data I need for ICAVL accreditation more quickly, and I’m now planning to apply for first-time Echo Lab accreditation through ICAEL.”
