Digital images are available to physicians throughout PCMC through the enterprise-wide PACS. Images are transmitted over an ATM (50 Mbps) network, although a gigabit Ethernet (1 Gbps) conversion is under way. This enterprise-wide image distribution allows physicians anywhere in the hospital to access images from any PC using the system's Web browser.

The hospital also has remote reading stations in critical care units, such as the emergency department, pediatric ICU, and neonatal ICU, all of which are equipped with high-end PACS workstations.

Comments

"It took us a few days to become accustomed to the idea of looking at images on screen instead hard copies that we had before, but once we got over the hurdle of learning a new skill, it's been fantastic. We essentially never have a missing image now, which was a constant problem before PACS. We can view the images we want to view much faster, and we can view them directly in the clinic without having to travel down to radiology. I almost never look at images anywhere else. They have sufficient resolution to view them completely up here in our office. The quality of image is ample." -- Dr. Francis Filloux, a neurologist in the pediatric neurology department

"One of the things not fully appreciated is that PACS is a powerful tool for nonradiologists -- for physicians outside the radiology department. PACS has dramatically improved the efficiency of clinicians. Now they spend much less time each day in nonproductive activity, like walking around the radiology department looking for studies." -- Dr. Keith White, PCMC radiologist

"The emergency physicians like it because they can zoom in on detail. Being able to adjust the brightness and contrast- - impossible to do with film -- has changed the way they do business. We give them full-fidelity images, so they're actually finding small fractures that they wouldn't have been able to find before PACS." -- Darin Day, PACS administrator