Cloud-based Medical File-Sharing Service Enhances Quality of Care
SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- eMix, a business venture incubated by DR Systems, significantly reduced a rural Alaska hospital’s costs for sharing radiology files, according to a presentation at the Fall Educational Conference of the Radiology Business Management Association (RBMA).
The presentation was by the Imaging Services Director at one of America’s most-wired hospitals, Katherine Leslie, BS, RDMS, CRA, R.T.(R)(CT) of Central Peninsula Hospital (CPH), a 49-bed facility in Soldotna, Alaska. Hospitals and Health Networks magazine named CPH one of 2011's “Most Wired Hospitals” in the Small and Rural category.
In her talk, Leslie described how the hospital's traditional method of sharing radiology files – burning them to CDs and then sending them by express mail – had cost nearly $15,600/year. It also took substantial staff time and labor to manage. In addition, delivery to the receiving hospital was too slow for emergency cases.
Switching to a cloud-based service for sharing medical imaging studies and reports saved nearly $9,000 per year in hard-dollar costs -- while providing near-instantaneous file transfers that improved patient care. eMix is the cloud-based service used at CPH.
“The money we saved is very significant for a small hospital like ours,” said Leslie. “The savings would be proportionately greater at a large institution with a much bigger imaging volume than we have.”
Video of Leslie speaking about medical image sharing and eMix is available at http://bit.ly/uds0hV.
“The technology is vendor-neutral and scalable so it can be used anywhere,” she said. “It continues to astound me that more hospitals have not turned to this simple-to-use, reliable method. It solves a problem that has existed for years – that is, how to send files between hospitals whose proprietary IT systems don't easily talk to each other.”
The presentation also covered other benefits of cloud-based sharing of medical files, including:
- Reducing repeat imaging due to unavailable pertinent exams
- Ability to push images directly from a PACS to out-of-network providers
- Pay per use, with no hardware or software to purchase, install, and maintain
- Secure, auditable results distribution
- Ability to reduce or eliminate reliance on virtual private networks (VPNs).
eMix, which stands for Electronic Medical Information Exchange, enables secure sharing of images and reports among disparate institutions and physicians via the Internet.
eMix provides eight layers of security to protect healthcare institutions' patient data. The eMix security architecture enables institutions to comply with requirements of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), as well as enforce strict security policies of their own.
New features recently added to eMix include automated report delivery to an EMR inbox. The eMix EMRconnect™ feature enables a reading facility to set up its referring physicians to receive reports automatically into their EMR inbox.
Leslie’s talk was titled “Using Cloud Computing for Sharing Radiology Files Saves Costs, Time and Labor.” The RBMA 2011 Fall Educational Conference took place Oct. 16-19, 2011 in Las Vegas.
About eMix
eMix is a business venture incubated by DR Systems, one of the most respected names in healthcare information systems. Electronic Medical Information Exchange (eMix) is cloud-based technology developed for sharing medical imaging studies and reports between disparate healthcare facilities and physicians with the speed and simplicity of email. eMix will also facilitate the inclusion of patient images into electronic medical records (EMRs) and patients’ personal healthcare records (PHRs).
The business-to-business capability of eMix will be followed with the launch of a patient portal for business-to-consumer data exchanges, as well as a long-term storage feature with highly flexible user-driven storage rules and options. For more information, visit www.eMix.com or call 877-EMIX-MED (877-364-9633).
About DR Systems, Inc.
DR Systems, Inc. is the leading independent provider of enterprise imaging and information management systems for hospitals, integrated healthcare networks, and diagnostic imaging centers. For more than 19 years, the company has helped over 600 hospitals and imaging center sites lower their cost of operation by improving management of patient information, eliminating film costs, and increasing workflow speed, while providing better clinical quality and patient care. For more information, visit www.drsys.com or call 800-794-5955.
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KEYWORDS: United States North America Alaska California
INDUSTRY KEYWORDS: Technology Data Management Internet Software Health Hospitals Radiology
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