by
Gus Iversen, Editor in Chief | April 22, 2015
From the April 2015 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine
All of which seems to point toward fewer PACS providers, with bigger PACS footprints, who are producing more versatile PACS than ever. Despite that, there’s no reason to think a shortage of options is eminent. “It seems like every year someone gets bought and someone new enters the market,” says GE’s Stoval, “but it doesn’t feel like the overall number of vendors with offerings in the enterprise image market is really changing.”
First KLAS service
Most PACS manufacturers seem comfortable acknowledging that there is no perfect solution on the market. Each hospital has unique needs, and one of the best ways a PACS provider can meet those needs is by addressing each facility, or group of facilities, on an individual basis. That approach has worked for Sectra, who won every “best of” PACS category in 2014 from KLAS Research.
Sectra has developed a customer concierge program to help support workflow and parse out the big problems from the ones that can be easily solved. “Previously, customers would call in with easy fixes, but they had to log a ticket and go through the standard protocols to have it addressed,” says Andrea Sowitch, VP of marketing at Sectra. “Because of the feedback from KLAS, we have created a front line team to get items handled immediately.”
“If it is something highly technical, it gets pushed up to a different level within the support organization and we are very logically organized,” says Sowitch. “Sometimes, the smallest changes can make the greatest impact on our customer satisfaction.”
PACS unlimited
With all the changes taking place in PACS, some companies believe an entirely new chapter in digital imaging is already underway. That’s why Stoval says GE has started moving away from the acronym. “At RSNA we didn’t even use the word PACS,” he says, “It’s just too limiting.”
Although the lid has been blown off the capabilities of PACS, the long term picture may be somewhat predictable. All images relevant to a patient’s health will one day be kept in the same place, accessible from anywhere via secure network connections, and fully integrated with every other aspect of that patient’s care record.
The lines between VNAs, PACS, EMRs, and other imaging modalities will continue to blur until singular solutions emerge that bring unprecedented order to health care imaging. It all harkens back to the ever-timely smart-phone analogy; a single platform that does everything one wants it to.
DOTmed Registered PACS April 2015 Companies
Names in boldface are Premium Listings.
Domestic
Mike Battin, PACSHealth, LLC, AZ
Cesar Mairena, Ampronix Inc., CA
Ted Huss, Medical Imaging Resources, CA
DOTmed Certified
David Denholtz, Integrity Medical Systems, Inc., FL
DOTmed Certified
DOTmed 100
Volodymyr Markevych, Vomark Technologies Inc., IL
DOTmed Certified
DOTmed 100
Scott Wasson, Radiology Services LLC, IN
DOTmed Certified
Jeff Sirk, Majestic Medical Solution, LA
Katie McAuliffe, Foliage, Inc, MA
Mike George, PaxeraMed, MA
Diane Sappah, INFINITT North America, NJ
Renee Oberle, MES, Inc., TX
International
Alicia Carbo-Guha, RamSoft, Inc., Canada
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