The operational efficiency benefits of a PACS solution to radiology departments compared to film environments are well known.
Through immediate availability of images to the radiologist, PACS promise also to decrease turnaround report time to the referring clinician.
But a study of CT exams at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), however, reveals that the use of PACS may not be a universal silver bullet, at least in terms of report turnaround.
MGH found that the addition of PACS into their academic radiology division improves availability of alphanumeric preliminary reports on the Hospital Information System by a respectable 85%.
Somewhat surprisingly, however, the study showed no improvement on the time to final report, as signed by a staff radiologist. In fact, there was a 9% in the time to availability of the final signed report.
"We found this interesting," said Patricia Whelan, PACS administrator in the MGH department of radiology. "This increase in the time to final report availability, however, is not thought to reflect on PACS, but instead on the signing practices of staff radiologists, which fluctuate from month to month depending on things such as research schedules."
Reports at academic medical centers follow two steps: a preliminary report can be dictated by a non-staff radiologist, such as a resident or fellow, but it doesn't become final until it's reviewed by a staff physician.
The retrospective study looked at over 6,000 abdominal and pelvic CT exams over two 1-year periods in 1997 and 1998. During the first year, interpretation was conducted using hardcopy films. PACS was used the second year. The same voice recognition software was used in use both years.
The average time for a preliminary report availability without PACS was 3.73 days. With PACS, the report was available in less than half a day.
The time to availability of the final report was 5.49 days during the first year (without PACS), and 5.97 days with PACS.
Whelan said there was no increase in the number of radiology workstations in either test subset, and there were no changes in the number of radiology FTEs during either test period.
