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When the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) set provider goals for phase two of meaningful use of interoperable electronic health records, I knew our team had a significant challenge on our hands.
Our group was charged with finding a solution to streamline diagnostic imaging access throughout the Tuality network. The solution needed to serve Tuality’s physicians across a wide array of specialties—cardiology, neurology, orthopedics, radiology, and more. Further, I was also looking for a way to streamline secure access of imaging studies for referring physicians outside of our network.
The technology would have to be speedy, reliable, easy to use, scalable to support any-sized facility, and highly secure. After talking with various vendors, I determined that Fujifilm would be our best partner for this major project.
Tuality clinicians were already using Fujifilm’s Synapse® PACS, so we knew Fujifilm’s healthcare IT portfolio was solid. Equally important, I also knew we could count on Fujifilm for the kind of responsive service and support that might be needed with a new install of this magnitude. Working side by side with the Fujifilm team, we planned a phased rollout of the company’s Synapse® Mobility Enterprise Viewer. This robust solution provides instant, secure access to the entire patient imaging record—advancing greater care quality, heightening productivity metrics, and empowering real-time collaboration.
The plan was to roll it out to referring physicians first. Authorized viewers can access Mobility via web browsers, mobile devices, iOS clients and launch it directly from an EHR or other portal. The zero-footprint, device agnostic solution was an ideal fit.
Making sure users were comfortable with the technology was key for adoption, so I developed a concise training program. This instructed clinicians on how to launch studies in Mobility, find patients, and tweak images in different modes. The feedback on the training and the system has been overwhelmingly positive. Physicians and nurses have commented on the power of the application, ease of use, and the exceptional diagnostic-quality of the images.
Referring physicians have expressed increased satisfaction because they have immediate access to patient images. In fact, Mobility has helped build business and customer loyalty for Tuality. With Mobility, patients receive speedier care because all authorized doctors can easily access images and reports. Then there’s the positive impact it has had on our transfer patients. Our clinicians no longer have to wait for the patient’s images to arrive on CD—which formerly took hours or even days.
Mobility has empowered collaborative care, too. Physicians from various departments and facilities can consult while all viewing the same images simultaneously.
And there’s a big benefit to being able to access images as often as needed. Specialists often need to see images more than once to drive better outcomes. For example, they may need to compare and contrast images to determine disease progression.
Finally, Mobility gets patients more involved in their own care. When doctors show images to patients and discuss them face-to-face, patients walk away with a better understanding of their own condition.
Synapse Mobility was the right solution for Tuality. It allowed us to meet the mandate of meaningful use phase two. But most importantly, the technology keeps on giving—helping drive efficiency, collaboration and quality care delivery.