Tuomey Healthcare System was having a great deal of difficulty moving patients in and out of the Emergency Department in a timely manner. The hospital determined that there was a problem in communicating Radiology results between the Emergency Department and the Radiology Department. Further investigation found that ED Physicians were delaying patient care while waiting for Radiology results. The major roadblock was found to be that the ED physicians did not know when or even if Radiology results were available. This lack of critical patient exam information caused delays in patient care, and also delays in moving patients in and out of the Emergency Department.
The Investigation Jose Bennett, the PACS Administrator, was given the task of evaluating multiple Critical Test Results Management (CTRM) systems. He was looking for a solution that would fulfill three major requirements. 1) It must be able to interface to Tuomey's existing PACS, RIS or Dictation system. 2) It must also be a product that would be flexible enough to meet Tuomey's needs without adversely affecting the current Radiologists' workflow. 3) The product must provide a cost effective pricing model.
The Solution IMCO Technologies CTRM solution, IMCO-STAT, was the product of choice. IMCO worked closely with Tuomey to design a solution using existing systems without causing any undue additional work for any of the physicians involved. The solution consisted of interfacing the IMCO-STAT product with the Tuomey RIS. The RIS would provide the patient demographics to associate the alert to the correct patient exam and Radiologist dictation. It was also determined that the Radiologists were using a microphone for dictation with programmable buttons that could be leveraged to enhance the workflow. Each of the programmable buttons on the microphone could be assigned an acuity level that would correspond to the levels of alert acuity as defined by Tuomey Healthcare. The new Radiology workflow consisted of having the Radiologist click on one of the programmed buttons on the microphone after completing the read of every Emergency Department exam. The IMCO-STAT server would then send a message to the Emergency Department physician that ordered the exam. The Emergency Department physician would know immediately that their patient's Radiology exam results were available. He was also provided an acuity level, which quickly informed them if the exam was normal, or if there some findings that needed immediate attention.
