UMass Memorial Health drives efficiency and adoption with PowerShare
UMass Memorial Health reduced administrative burdens and optimized workflows to create efficiencies for imaging teams with PowerShare Image Sharing.
Reducing burden on imaging teams
UMass Memorial Health recognized the need to replace their legacy image sharing solution with one that would be easy to use, integrate seamlessly into their Epic workflow, and ultimately reduce the administrative burden on clinicians and reading room staff. Read how they did that with Nuance PowerShare.
Challenge
Needed a more robust, fully integrated image exchange platform.
Solution
PowerShare Image Sharing
Results
Reduced administrative burdens and optimized workflow create efficiencies for imaging teams.
Background
Serving the people of Central Massachusetts, UMass Memorial Health has earned its trusted position as an academic medical center through excellence in care, comprehensive health services, teaching, and research. As the largest health care system in in the region, with imaging volumes exceeding 700,000 studies per year, its vast care network connects patients to community‑based physician practices, home health, hospice care, rehabilitation, and behavioral health services.
To support their growing patient population and continue delivering exceptional care, UMass Memorial Health recognized the need to replace their legacy image sharing solution with one that would be easy to use, integrate seamlessly into their Epic workflow, and ultimately reduce the administrative burden on providers and reading room staff.
“Before Nuance PowerShare, we had a confusing, disjointed image sharing workflow that our clinicians simply avoided,” explains Senior Epic/Apps System Analyst, Mark Tucker. After a competitive evaluation process, Nuance PowerShare was a clear winner, due in large part to its usability, deep Epic integration, and auto‑order generation capabilities.
By connecting an ever‑expanding network of more than 9,000 healthcare facilities, PowerShare Image Sharing enables radiologists and other providers to easily access, share, and view medical imaging and diagnostic reports—anytime, anywhere. It seamlessly integrates with any electronic health record (EHR) and enables advanced workflow efficiencies that accelerate care delivery.
For example, the ability to auto‑generate orders has contributed significantly to efficiency gains by alleviating the cumbersome and time‑consuming process of manual order creation and management. According to Tucker, their previous solution for reconciling outside PACS studies with orders never quite worked. The workflow was confusing and caused significant issues for providers and file room staff. With PowerShare, the workflow is automated, streamlined, and no longer requires manual staff effort. “PowerShare’s deep Epic integration and ability to auto‑generate orders have been tremendous. In our first 11 months with the solution, we auto‑generated over 18,000 orders saving our providers over 900 hours,” says Tucker.
Unmatched outcomes
1,400
active users
2x
adoption & usage compared to legacy solution
912+
provider hours saved in first 11 months
Ease of use, reduced administrative burdens drive broad adoption of Nuance PowerShare
PowerShare’s flexibility and ease‑of‑use, combined with single sign‑on capabilities, have been key to driving adoption and efficiency among UMass Memorial providers. Today, they have more than 1,400 active PowerShare users—twice the number of users of their legacy solution. “Our providers, radiologists, and administrators can all remain within the systems and environments they’re accustomed to. They don’t need added steps or separate logins to do their jobs effectively,” says Tucker.
“PowerShare offers the strength, security, ease‑of‑use, and flexibility our clinical and IT teams need to solve our immediate issues and even tackle challenges we hadn’t initially considered,” says Tucker.
UMass Memorial recently tested PowerShare, using it as their “backup PACS” during their last scheduled PACS upgrade to see if imaging remained readily available and accessible. It did. In fact, the test was so successful that UMass Memorial has adopted this workflow as part of their long‑term business continuity strategy. Whereas before they would “be at the mercy of the network, we now have reliable continuity for our mission‑critical diagnostic interpretation services,” notes Tucker.
Now that UMass Memorial has overcome their most pressing imaging challenges with PowerShare they’re looking ahead to expand its usage. “We know we want to make PowerShare more widely available to our on‑call providers. We’re also exploring what workflows might be best for use via the mobile application,” Tucker concludes. With the right solution now in place, UMass Memorial Health is well positioned to advance their mission and deliver exceptional care.
“Our clinicians enjoy the flexibility of Dragon Medical One being hosted in the cloud,” explains Dr. Mazza. “With the PowerMic mobile application, they can dictate their notes wherever they’re working—whether it’s with a patient, at the practice, or home.”