Reporting practices

Twenty-one DS 3000 diagnostic workstations are located throughout the split-level radiology department. Another two can be found in the emergency department and three in radiotherapy.

The diagnostic workstations have been sited in rooms used previously for reporting films. A number of light boxes have been left in these rooms as well. This means radiologists can compare old films with the latest digital images if they prefer to skip the step of digitizing a previous exam.

Radiologists dictate all reports onto tape at present. Plans to install speech recognition functionality are still under discussion.

Comments

"I was in favor of PACS right from the beginning in the early 1990s. A lot of my colleagues didn't like the PACS. They told me: 'I can't do the reporting. It's impossible without the hard copies.' Now I think times have changed completely, and 99% of my colleagues are happy with the PACS."
Dr. Viktor Metz, professor of radiology, Vienna General Hospital