Categorized | Health

Hilo Medical Center implements radiology upgrades

Dr. Nakamoto and Karah Yoshida at one of the new radiology stations. (Photo courtesy Hilo Medical Center)

Dr. Nakamura and Karah Yoshida at one of the new RIS/PACS stations. (Photo courtesy Hilo Medical Center)

MEDIA RELEASE

Hilo Medical Center completed the first phase of its implementation of a state-of-the-art method of storing, transporting, tracking and viewing Radiology images known as RIS/PACS.

RIS, an acronym for Radiology Information System, is a computerized software-driven database used to store, manipulate and distribute patient radiologic data and imagery. The system consists of patient tracking, scheduling, result reporting and image tracking capabilities.

The hardware complement of the RIS is the PACS or Picture Archiving and Communication Systems. The PACS with its computers and servers, is a system dedicated to the storage, retrieval, distribution and presentation of images.

“This technology brings our community hospital up to speed with much of the country. We plan on integrating the system with the new Electronic Medical Records,” said Dr. Eric Wyatt, Radiology Department Chair at Hilo Medical Center. “Many thanks go to the RIS/PACS implementation team at Hilo Medical Center for their hard work on this project.”

“The RIS/PACS System is a key strategic initiative in making our Radiology Department more efficient for our patients, physicians and staff,” said Money Atwal, Hawaii Health System Corporation’s East Hawaii Region Chief Information Officer (CIO) and Chief Financial Officer (CFO). “We have eliminated the need to have a transporter literally ‘run’ an image from the Radiology Department to departments throughout the hospital. Now physicians can access x-rays, CT scans and other images from the workstation in their department soon after the image is taken and loaded into the system.”

Altogether, there are 14 workstations in the hospital: 2 in the Emergency Department and 12 in the nursing units.

HMC’s Hawaii Pacific Oncology Center, located across the street from the hospital, also has a dedicated RIS/PACS workstation. With the addition of these workstations, hospitalists and hospital privileged physicians now have access their patients’ images within the hospital on demand.

HMC also provides two reading rooms in the Radiology Department for Radiologists to interpret images on high-resolution screens. The Implementation Team responsible for making the RIS/PACS project a reality include Kris Correa-Wilson, Paul Kahana, Karah Yoshida, Gavin Ikeda and Jon Saragosa.  Money Atwal served as the Team’s senior leader in his role as CIO.

The RIS/PACS implementation project began in January 2009 and went “live” April 27, 2009. Since then, Hilo Medical Center has added 1,767,498 electronic images to its system.

The multimillion dollar project was undertaken as a long-term cost saving measure through the eventual decreases in the use of film, chemicals to process the film, and space required to store each film measuring 14 inches by 17 inches.

Upcoming phases of the project will include interfacing the RIS/PACS with HMC’s Electronic Medical Records system slated for implementation in 2010.

Hilo Medical Center has been caring for its community for more than 100 years. As the Big Island’s major provider of inpatient and outpatient care, the 275-bed facility provides a full range of services. With more than 120 physicians, representing 33 specialties and over 950 employees, HMC is the fifth busiest hospital in the state.

HMC is part of the Hawaii Health Systems Corporation, a public corporation established in 1996 by the state to fulfill the promise to provide quality, hometown healthcare.

— Find out more:

www.hmc.hhsc.org

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