How well does the virtual radiology department work?
It works out quite well. We recently upgraded to very fast transmission lines for our images so we’re working almost in real time. We have dedicated clerks to help us interact with the physicians; so if we see abnormal findings, we have a clerk that can contact the physician in a matter of a few minutes. How do you have access to information for patients outside your physical facility? Well, it turns out that the VistARad system is very tightly integrated with the VistA system, which is essentially the HIS for the entire VA system; and all of that is integrated within the PACS. So I can click on a button any time I am reading a film and bring up the patient’s medications, recent visits, their problem lists. We really have all the information we need clinically while reading the films. How is the system integrated with speech recognition? We’re a paperless department at this point; so when we interpret the images, there’s integration between the system and the voice recognition system.
