Six Tips for PACS Integration

Increased patient load, tightening reimbursement, and shrinking budgets can have multi-facility health systems searching for ways to maximize their bottom line. According to Applied Radiology, an up-to-date, integrated PACS could help grow your business.

A MarketsandMarkets study released in October revealed the enterprise PACS market is expected to balloon to more than $510 million by 2018, and a 2011 CapSite study estimated, at the time, 21 percent of U.S. hospitals and health systems would elect to change their PACS.

When selecting a new system, industry experts frequently recommend you consider functionality, accessibility, and scalability. However, there are a few specific tips that could make your decision easier.

1.      Documentation: Be sure to create clear, detailed, comprehensive documentation about your enterprise workflow.

2.      Standards: Whenever you can, opt for standards-based integration instead of proprietary integration. It will make future operations easier.

3.      Test environment: Use live data in an integrated test environment.

4.      Test plans: Create test plans for all your integrated systems based on your workflow documentation.

5.      Vendor management: Whenever possible, coordinate any changes from your vendors with all the affected systems in advance.

6.      Version control: Keep your systems up-to-date so you can successfully manage any upgrades or changes.