Case Studies. Any other questions? medicom.us

Transcription

1 Case Studies

2 Radiology Group Uses Medicom to Replace Cumbersome Cloud to Efficiently Send Imaging Studies to Referring Physicians Location: Florida, United States Business Challenge: Referring physicians required prompt return of patient reports and images. A cloud solution was deployed in order to improve turn-around time, but the implementation was incomplete, and a low percentage of physicians adopted the solution leaving the radiology group mailing the majority of images through the post. : An implementation of Medicom resulted in near 100% utilization among referring physicians who ranged from receiving the studies in direct links that do not require account registration, to physicians signing up accounts and connecting PACS. Medicom s utilization nearly eliminated CDs; the details of which are outlined below. This radiology group is a leader in nuclear medicine and 3D mammography and has a referring physician base of over 3,000 physicians. In addition, it owns and operates over 15 independent facilities. In the past, turn around time for patient diagnostics studies has been delayed by heavy utilization of outgoing CDs. As a result, this radiology group deployed a cloud solution in order to deliver the images electronically to their referring base. Unfortunately, the utilization of the cloud system was low due to difficulty of use and implementation, especially for the referring physicians. As a result, only 7.5% of studies performed were transferred through the cloud solution to the referring physicians. This resulted in the radiology group paying for cloud storage of images never accessed, while still absorbing the cost and wasted time associated with mailing CDs. With the Medicom Desktop application, the radiology group is able to send studies to referring physicians without requiring them to create a login account. The Medicom Desktop application issues a one-time access link via . The referring physicians found this easy to use, which resulted in about 50% of CD reduction in the first month of use. Over the course of the next three months, Medicom was deployed as a service and used to replace incoming and outgoing VPNs, as well as eliminate nearly 100% of outbound CDs. This radiology group sought new innovative tools to deliver studies electronically with ease, so that they could replace unreliable VPNs, their cloud solution, and their outgoing CD problem.

3 Hospital Group Uses Medicom to Replace VPNs Connecting Hub and Spoke PACS Implementation Location: Pennsylvania, United States Business Challenge: As this hospital group grew, connecting their hubs and spokes became increasingly challenging. Unfortunately, expanding costly VPN pipelines was unachievable. As a result, the hospital group had to revert to asking patients to hand carry their radiology CDs to various hospital hubs. : Medicom was installed on hub and spoke PACS servers and was configured to automatically route studies from spoke to hub when patients were discharged and en-route for surgery, specialized care, or further evaluation. This hospital group specializes in treatment of oncology, orthopedic, cardiology, and transplantations. Known as one of the most progressive healthcare organizations in the country, this group constantly works to deploy new technology that improves outcomes for their patients. Previously, this hospital group used VPNs in order to connect their hubs to their spokes. As the number of imaging studies increased, the VPNs became inadequate. Additionally, as their group expanded through acquisition, disparities between systems made VPNs an inadequate solution for communicating imaging studies. As a result of the issues with VPNs, this healthcare organization reverted to using CDs and sent them with the patients as they traveled from the spoke to the hub location. The Medicom Desktop Application was installed on PACS servers at the hub and spoke locations. Medicom s autorouting was configured to automatically route studies when patients were discharged or moved from one location to another. This was accomplished by recognizing changes and unique identifiers in the DICOM Metadata. Medicom s secure tunnel scales so that the pipeline does not become congested; this instilled confidence that the images would arrive in a timely fashion. As the group continues to grow, Medicom can easily be added at new facilities ensuring seamless integration as their network continues to expand.

4 Neurosurgery Clinic Uses Medicom to Back Up All Priors to Off-Site PACS Archive in Real Time Location: Arizona, United States Business Challenge: The neurosurgery group was in dire need of a solution that allowed them to back up the images they received from referring physicians to an off-site PACS archive. They were searching for a way to replace their outdated methods of sending CDs to archives. : The group set up a Medicom workstation at one of their sites. The Medicom workstation was configured to autoroute the CDs they received directly to a partner radiology group to be backed up to their PACS archive. The neurosurgery group is a private practice group of neurosurgeons, neurologists, and physician assistants providing comprehensive medical and surgical care for patients with neurological disorders. The group provides care for patients who have had prior imaging scans performed externally. They receive the prior images via CDs, and they are sent to an off-site medical records facility managed by a partner group, where a staff member uploads the images to hosted PACS. CDs were shipped in a crate every Friday which delayed the continuation of care. Their procedure for backing up priors to the archive was expensive and inefficient. The Medicom Desktop Application was installed with the CD ingestion feature on a workstation that is dedicated to uploading and reading CDs. It is configured to auto send the images directly to their partner radiology group. When that partner group receives the images, they are backed up in their PACS archive, where they use the Medicom rules feature to organize their incoming studies by segregating the images received from the neurosurgery group. The partner radiology group has a full Medicom account. This allows the neurosurgery group to be added to their contacts as a free account, enabling them to exchange images with their partner group at no financial burden to the neurosurgery group.

5 Orthopedic Group Implements Medicom to Eliminate CD Ingestion for Image Archiving Location: Arizona, United States Business Challenge: Orthopedic doctors were losing valuable time with the transportation of CDs to their PACS archive that could have been spent diagnosing and caring for patients. : The orthopedic group set up a Medicom workstation at their front desk. This enables patients to arrive with CDs of their priors and hand them to the receptionist, where they are then sent directly to their PACS archive. The orthopedic group represented is the largest and one of the most advanced multi-specialty orthopedic groups in the southwest. They have been setting the standard for orthopedic care all over the world. In the past, patients would come to the group with a CD containing their prior images. Typically, patients would hand their priors to their physician or surgeon who by protocol was supposed to hand them off to the radiology manager, who in turn would then hand them off to the medical records staff to upload images to their hosted PACS for viewing. Frustrated practitioners would want to look at the images immediately, but the process in place for uploading images typically took an entire business day. To save valuable time, doctors would often take the CDs home instead so they could view them immediately, which led to numerous workflow issues and privacy concerns. The group installed the Medicom Desktop Application on every workstation in their reception desk. The workstations were configured to read the CDs and autoroute the images from the Medicom Application at the receptionist s desk to the Medicom Application on the archive, where it automatically imported the images. The change in workflow allowed patients to hand their imaging CDs to receptionists who now transmit them to their PACS archive in real time. The images can now be read and analyzed moments after the patients arrive, increasing their promptness of treatment and care. In addition, the orthopedic group now issues priors via Medicom s Direct one-off feature, significantly reducing their output of CDs.

6 Internal Medicine Group Uses Medicom to Receive Prompt Radiographic Interpretations From Local Clinic Location: Arizona, United States Business Challenge: This internal medicine group conducts thousands of diagnostic imaging procedures each year for their patients. Because they do not have an in-house radiologist, they send their studies to a partner group for radiographic interpretations. The internal medicine group faced severe load management issues, high maintenance costs, and security concerns with their VPN. : The group set up a Medicom workstation at their two sites. The Medicom workstations were configured to autoroute studies to their partner group so their skilled radiologists could quickly analyze the images. The internal medicine group is one of the largest medical groups in the southwest, devoted exclusively to providing comprehensive, compassionate, and high-quality cancer care. The internal medicine group does not have a radiologist onsite. In order to receive quality and timely reads of studies, they set up a VPN connection, allowing them to transfer studies to their partner group. The VPN proved to be inconsistent and posed security threats to the internal medicine group, since there was no audit trail associated with the VPN. Additionally, the group needed a data transfer solution to send and receive prior studies from their other partners. The internal medicine group previously exchanged over 1,500 CDs a year. The Medicom Desktop Application was installed on two workstations at the internal medicine group and they were configured with static IP addresses. IT configured a Medicom DICOM node on their network so that images could be sent directly from these workstations to external sources through Medicom. Studies performed on the internal medicine group s modalities are immediately autosent to their partner radiology group for reads. At the partner radiology group, a headless Linux version of Medicom automatically uploads the images to their archive so the radiologists can preform reads, immediately. Medicom was also installed on workstations at sites of the other partners to enable bi-directional transferring between the clinics to eliminate their prior need for CDs.

7 Mobile Units Use Medicom to Replace Over-Night Shipping of Hard Drives Location: All 50 states Business Challenge: This organization offers mammography and digital tomosynthesis services from specialty vehicle units. At the end of each business day, hard drives full of studies are sent to a central archive via FedEx. : Medicom s persistent sending allows the mobile units to transfer 3D mammography studies over the web, during the day, so radiographical interpretations can occur in real time. The proprietary persistence feature makes it possible to send studies even with prolonged network interruptions. The company operates mobile radiology services. Their specialty vehicles and expert staff ensure they can extend the benefits of early detection of breast cancer through digital mammography screening to any patient, anytime, virtually anywhere. The modalities on the mobile units perform scans over the course of the day. At the end of each day, studies were overnight shipped on portable hard drives to a central archive where the patients images are stored. These procedures did not optimize patient care, and were costly. The Medicom Desktop Application was installed on radiology workstations aboard the mobile units. As soon as a study is performed it is sent directly to their central archive without the need for overnight shipping. Medicom s proprietary persistent sending feature allows the units to send studies over cellular networks that face internet service interruptions. The feature pauses transfers during times of no connectivity, and resumes as a connection is re-established. As a result, studies are sent worry free, and in real time.

8 Family of Lung Cancer Patient Uses Medicom to Transmit Radiology CDs Across United States Location: New Jersey to Arizona, United States Patient Challenge: Lung-cancer diagnosis in 91-year old New Jersey man required expedited second opinion from an oncologist in Arizona in order to obtain referral for minimally-invasive VATS robotic surgery. Patient in New Jersey had no viable alternative, during weekend, to send CT and X-ray CD disks to Arizona. : Family of patient downloaded Medicom Desktop Application, loaded CT scan onto laptop and transmitted the study from New Jersey to Arizona oncologist within a few minutes. The oncologist immediately reviewed the study and, with images in hand, referred the case to a world-renowned cancer center in New York City for VATS robotic surgery, which was successfully performed. In this case, the challenge was to enable the family of a cancer-patient to send CT and X-ray images across the United States for a second opinion, and for referral to a minimally-invasive VATS robotic surgery specialist, for a matter in which time was of the essence. The patient had no ability to hand carry the disks 3,000 miles, nor was FedEx an option and, even had it been, it would have extended the time before the images could be reviewed. Oncologist in Arizona directed family of 91-year old lung cancer patient in New Jersey to Medicom website. Family of patient downloaded the Medicom Desktop Application and, within a few minutes, transmitted multiple CT and X-ray CD disks to the oncologist, who immediately received them for review and provided a second opinion. The oncologist was then able to refer the patient for minimally-invasive VATS robotic surgery at a major cancer center in New York City. Without Medicom, a second opinion and a potential referral could have taken weeks, potentially precluding a surgical option. Because of the instantaneous ability by a patient to send radiology data across the country, however, the patient s physicians had the opportunity to immediately begin the referral and scheduling process, allowing for the necessary surgical procedure to be scheduled and successfully performed.