Earlier this year, Union County Hospital began using the CARESTREAM PACS (Picture Archiving and Communications System), an innovative digital image and information management system from Carestream Health Inc. The hospital is now able to provide more efficient radiology operational workflow and enhanced patient care.

The facility’s CARESTREAM PACS provides radiologists with immediate electronic access to medical imaging exams and has enabled faster and more efficient distribution of radiology reports and images to referring physicians and patients. Fast on line access to images and diagnostic reports improves productivity between radiologists, referring physicians, and OR, ER, clinic and ICU clinicians within the hospital’s acute healthcare setting. CARESTREAM PACS provides secure Web access to provide authorized clinicians digital images, e-reports, patient status, and histories to be viewed online with a standard PC using an Internet browser. No special software installation or upgrades are required. This allows referring physicians a complete system for checking patient status, and receiving results ---all online.

“This investment in information management technology has yielded a more efficient workflow for medical imaging exams, which saves time and provides added convenience for our patients.  Also the review of medical images by powerful PC workstations with advanced diagnostic software helps radiologists interpret complex examinations with improved accuracy,” said Pete Wories, Director of Radiology.

The CARESTREAM PACS has the added advantage of electronically archiving digital images, which reduces costly film file room space and improves the speed of accessing prior patient studies for side-by-side clinical comparisons. The system also has an advanced ability to consolidate images and manage fixed content patient data, which eliminates the burden of managing multiple hospital archives and associated islands of patient information.   The acquisition of the CARESTREAM PACS digital imaging and information management technology platform has improved clinical care delivery, patient safety, operational workflow efficiency, and lower enterprise healthcare costs.