When you’re a healthcare system serving over eight counties in a highly populated state, leading-edge technology can make a big difference when it comes to improving patient outcomes. That’s what a health system with a total of nearly 1,300 beds learned over the past seven years.
Before 2011, the health system was comprised of a few hospitals and served a more modest patient base. But as it added facilities and its patient base grew, so did its radiology study load. Among the top challenges for the group’s radiologists: Reading, interpreting, and comparing a mountain of patient studies from various facilities.
At the time, the health system relied on a radiology group, an independent radiology practice in the area, to assist with diagnostic interpretation of some of its cases. It seemed like a good plan, but there were still countless hurdles. Coordination and collaboration were slow because the medical teams were spread out in various physical locations. For example, referring clinicians from the health system—which now included four hospitals—were based in different locations. Meanwhile, the radiologists interpreting exams at the radiology group practice were also in separate facilities from the treating physicians.
In short, it was tedious and time-consuming to share patient studies across multiple facilities. This, in turn, meant that patients might be missing out on the benefit of getting the most speedy and accurate diagnoses.
The initial step: Implementing Synapse PACS
The health system realized that even the best radiology group wasn’t enough to keep pace with its growing volume of studies. In addition, the health system needed to put technology on its side. That’s when they turned to Fujifilm for its Synapse PACS and Synapse Cardiovascular solutions.
In November 2011, both the health system and the radiology group went live on Fujifilm’s Synapse version 4 PACS—with 450,000 annual studies through four hospitals.
In addition to a smooth implementation, the health system immediately realized big benefits from Synapse PACS. Synapse included two key unique features—CommonView and a Global Worklist—that enhanced efficiency of radiology readings. Specifically, the radiologists now had access to every facility’s patient studies for comparisons and interpretation across the health system and radiology groups. That made for faster, more accurate diagnoses in the health system—which meant quicker treatment decisions and better patient care.
Over the years, the health system continued to grow. In 2012, it opened one of the nation’s largest vascular institutes. In 2016, it partnered with a university and now trains more than 700 residents every year. In 2017, it opened a dedicated children’s hospital.
Ultimately, due to continued growth—including several mergers and acquisitions— the health system required a comprehensive and robust enterprise imaging solution.
The big upgrade: Synapse 5 PACS
By 2017, the Health System was comprised of six hospitals treating nearly 59,000 inpatients and some 575,000 outpatients annually.
Staying on top on all those radiology studies was more important than ever—and, more daunting than ever.
That’s why, in late 2017, the health system and radiology group both turned to Fujifilm for an upgrade to Synapse 5 PACS. Fujifilm had made the software upgrade available to its existing PACS customers by including it under their maintenance agreement. Now, health system wanted to capitalize on the opportunity as Synapse 5 set new standards for enterprise imaging and proved to be a game-changer.
Synapse 5 features the latest server-side technology. With a focus on speed and interactivity, Synapse 5 provides on-demand access to massive datasets and the ability to interact with the data—resulting in optimized healthcare delivery.
The health system discovered that advances in efficiency and ergonomics facilitated productivity and a better overall user experience as well. Server-based image rendering and a zero-download viewer with browser flexibility meant significant IT benefits, too.
Highly functional software designed to streamline workflow, along with speed and precision, is exactly what clinicians at health system and the radiologists at the radiology group practice needed to better collaborate and deliver the best possible patient care.
With Synapse 5, workflow was optimized across all healthcare facilities. Today, the health system with the support of the radiology group now efficiently manages approximately 650,000 radiology studies annually.
