The busy medical imaging center and radiology department of a large hospital produce thousands of digital medical images over the course of a year. A significant part of the work involved at these types of medical facilities occurs after the digital data is captured, however. Storage comprises a major portion of the handling of medical digital images, and so anything that can be done to streamline those important processes helps to improve overall workflow in that department. It is for this and other reasons that many imaging centers and radiology departments rely on radiology PACS.
Archiving of patient digital records can happen in a number of different ways through the use of a radiology PACS system. If a patient needs to take a hard copy of digital images with him or her to a specialist’s office, for example, hard copies can be printed out on a digital printer, but copies can also be saved to a CD or DVD, making it more convenient for the consulting physician and patient.
With a PACS in place at your medical office, you can also set it to automatically save copies in seconds of patient digital medical images to the patient file as well as to both on- and off-site servers. The off-site server functions very well for many medical facilities that must keep within compliance of HIPPA rules for disaster recovery of patient medical records.
Another important way that you can save money is to use a radiology PACS that is web based. Because the PACS system is online, any number of associated medical offices and imaging centers in your local area network, wide area network or virtual private network can all use the same PACS system simultaneously.
Hospitals find other uses for their radiology PACS besides just as an excellent way to store digital images. Hospitals and other medical facilities that typically process a high volume of digital medical images find that a PACS can also function well as a dedicated router. With hundreds and thousands of digital images being sent through a medical network, the PACS as router makes sure that every digital image gets to its proper destination promptly and accurately.
At Dicom Solutions, we have PACS appliances that will work for the largest hospitals through to smaller specialty medical facilities, and all offer affordable options for the important storage needs that your medical office requires consistently.
