Belgian Hospital System Utilizing Hospital-Wide PACS Technology

Belgium's largest single campus hospital is installing the first example of a hospital-wide picture archiving and communications system (PACS). The technology will make it the first Belgian hospital to engage all departments in one central image-enabled archive system.

Prof. Bart Sijnave, chief information officer at UZ Gent Hospital explained, "Like many global healthcare providers, the push is to reduce the duration of stays, increasing the focus on the chain of information and ensuring that patient care is enhanced through good communication and the appropriate level of care provided by the right professional. We've worked with PACS in radiology for the last five years, and now there is no film used anywhere in the hospital- even surgery is completed using digital imaging. We decided we needed a central storage system, one where all multimedia could be deposited, easily accessed, and shared, regardless of the department from which it originated.”

As the largest single campus university hospital in Belgium, UZ Gent employs 6,000 people, housing 1,062 patient beds. The hospital focuses on the number of patients cared for and the throughput of day patients--in 2008, the hospital completed more than 101,000 procedures. The continuation of this upward trend will rely on optimized care being provided at every stage of patient recovery.

UZ Gent needed the ability to store multimedia and emerging imaging technology. Prof. Sijnave searched for a hospital-wide system that was more than just a bolted together bunch of software; it needed to be able to communicate with every caregiver, to be able to share idata using a vendor-independent platform, and the system it chose had to support that efficiently, molding itself to the working practices at UZ Gent.

Carestream Health, Inc. (Rochester, NY, USA) has designed a data workflow engine that is now at work in some of the biggest health maintenance organizations and hospitals worldwide. This made it the obvious choice for Prof. Sijnave. At UZ Gent the PACS will hook up over 40 different departments to one clinical archive. The enterprise-wide system will simplify IT administrative functions and reduce cost, delivering a multitier repository for industry-standard data such as XDS (Extended Data Services), XDS-I, Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM), HL [Health Level] 7, as well as other non-DICOM objects.

Carestream started the project by setting up five pilot departments and built from that to enable all 40 departments' access to the Clinical Data Archive (CDA). The archive will provide one access point to clinical images and other stored clinical information including images, video clips, laboratory results, and biopsy results.

UZ Gent is building a truly unique care model. Networked to 12 other hospitals, all able to access the technology platform, it has created a secure information and image exchange that has no reliance on geographic location. This efficient system is open and yet very secure, supporting the best methods of patient care.

Prof. Sijnave, described his vision, "Patient care will increasingly involve a multidiscipline approach, with teams working together to provide the most comprehensive care package possible. The theory sounds easy but in practice has traditionally broken down due to poor information exchange, particularly with the sharing of patient records.”

Having worked through the various issues associated with sharing information, UZ Gent is well situated to begin the move to a national and international platform where patient care can be completely transformed through the use of fast and efficient data sharing.

Related Links:
UZ Gent Hospital
Carestream Health