Improving physician workflow and patient care through connected medical imaging services.
Company profile
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.
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“ The PowerShare Network has overwhelmingly improved the efficiency of our workflow, especially in regards to outside images. Our physicians love that they don’t have to deal with a CD anymore. PowerShare takes their mind off of whether or not they can access an image—allowing them to focus on treating patients. ”
Josh Pavlovec
PACS Administrator
Children’s of Alabama
Challenge
- Workflow disruptions cause physician frustrations
- Corrupt and unusable CDs
- Rescans and additional exposure impedes throughput of patient care
Solution
- Nuance’s PowerShare Network
Results
- Meaningfully improved physician workflow and efficiency
- 60% reduction in CDs
- Connected with a referral network of 208 providers (and counting) via the cloud-based Network
- Significant reduction in unnecessary repeat scans and radiation exposure
Background
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.”