Children’s of Alabama improves physician workflow and patient care through connected medical imaging services
PowerShare enables physicians to view, share, and store medical images quickly and reliably.
Turning the focus back on patients
Read how Children’s of Alabama turned to PowerShare as a cloud‑based medical image exchange that would expedite physician workflow, while also providing security and mobile access. PowerShare allows the physician to take their mind off whether they can access an image, and then to focus on treating patients.
- Workflow disruptions that caused physician frustrations
- Corrupt and unusable CDs
- Rescans and additional exposure that impeded throughput of patient care
PowerShare Image Sharing
- Meaningful improvement of physician workflow and efficiency
- 60% reduction in CDs
- Connection with a referral network of 208 providers (and counting) via the cloud-based Network
- Significant reduction in unnecessary repeat scans and radiation exposure
Background
Located in Birmingham, Children’s of Alabama is the third largest pediatric medical facility in the U.S. and the only standalone pediatric hospital and Level I pediatric trauma facility in Alabama. With 375 beds, cribs and bassinets, Children’s receives patients from surrounding Alabama counties and nearly every state in the nation. With a large referral network, it was imperative that physicians were able to view, share and store medical images quickly and reliably. However, over 205 of CDs that referring providers would send were either unreadable or contained corrupt files. This problem continuously forced physicians at Children’s to disrupt their workflow and caused frustration, particularly among the trauma surgeons. Further, young patients were frequently rescanned and exposed to additional radiation—simply because the original medical image could not be read.
Looking to the clouds
Led by Children’s PACS administrator, Josh Pavlovec, the radiology team considered several solutions to help solve its physicians’ troubles and medical imaging dilemma. The team looked at VPNs, but ultimately decided a cloud‑based medical image exchange would expedite physician workflow, while also providing security and mobile access. Children’s assessed several solutions and selected Nuance’s PowerShare Network, which promised to be less “cumbersome” for physicians and referring facilities. Two years later, Pavlovec remarks, “We do not regret the steps we took in selecting PowerShare.”
Growing the Network
Beginning September 2012, Children’s introduced the Network to its trauma surgeons and emergency room personnel. Instantly, the department’s lead time increased significantly. With the Network, its physicians now had time to prepare and evaluate cases before the patient arrived, expediting treatment as soon as the patient came through the doors. As physicians realized workflow efficiencies, the solution spread by word of mouth throughout the hospital. This popularity, combined with internal advertising, resulted in 500% user growth in just two months. Fueled by demand, the Children’s PACS team rolled out the solution in each department quickly, and today it’s “house‑wide.”