Flexible RIS Enables Facilities to Adjust to Changing Requirements

A new radiology information system (RIS) platform helps healthcare providers to adapt data capture and workflow to address meaningful use requirements and other changes in healthcare practices and regulations worldwide.

At the annual Radiology Society of North America (RSNA) meeting, held November 28 to December 3, 2010, in Chicago IL, USA, Carestream Health (Rochester, NY, USA) demonstrated the RIS' ability to capture and share specific data required to meet US Federal Government guidelines for meaningful use. The company plans to submit an application for certification of its RIS as an EHR module that meets meaningful use criteria in the first half of 2011. Due to its built-in flexibility, Carestream RIS can meet the meaningful use initiative without requiring a new software release.

"Being able to redefine RIS workflows allows healthcare facilities to respond to government regulations including meaningful use, as well as adjust processes to satisfy emerging business needs," Diana L. Nole, president, digital medical solutions, Carestream Health. "Our RIS also offers advanced business intelligence tools that can help imaging centers, hospitals, and healthcare systems of all sizes improve productivity, efficiency, and profitability."

The company demonstrated the collection and/or receipt of the following data, which meets the first phase of meaningful use requirements: patient demographics, vital signs, smoking status, immunization records, diseases, allergies, and advanced directives for patients over 65. It also will validate that patient medications were tracked by referring physicians.

The powerful business intelligence capabilities of the Carestream RIS provide easy access to the imaging workflow and accurate data about personnel and equipment utilization so managers can make strategic decisions to help improve profitability. This data includes profitability rates for each modality; patient wait times, and volumes by modality or location; and the ability to examine imaging workflows to eliminate bottlenecks or unnecessary tasks.

The RIS integrates easily with other information systems and delivers broad functionality that--in the case of one large US hospital--replaced the need to integrate nine independent systems. This functionality includes innovative patient scheduling and tracking, including a rules engine that will notify schedulers if they are breaking a user-defined rule. This can improve patient safety and reduce scheduling errors.

Other features include built-in critical results reporting, including the ability to send text messages to referring physicians and track receipt. Administrative screens facilitate data collection and reporting required by JCAHO (Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations). A native ACR peer review module tracks reviews of original diagnoses by a second radiologist and meets requirements set by the American College of Radiology (ACR; Reston, VA, USA). Fully featured structured reporting that includes selection of a standard report based on the exam procedure and embeds patient and exam data into the report. The system features embedded voice recognition for an efficient reading workflow with voice-driven, mouse-less reporting to additionally enhance radiologist ease of use and productivity; web-based scheduling for referring physicians with an option to allow patients to make or change appointments; referral reports that show how many patients each physician is referring and if their referral rates are trending higher or lower; and specialized mammography reporting that meets country-specific requirements in North America and Europe.

Lastly, the system includes inventory management, document management and film tracking; and support for standard or user-defined procedure codes.

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