GE Healthcare will implement its Centricity RIS/PACS with speech recognition in the two county hospitals of Roskilde district. Fully integrated into the Hospital Information System (HIS), the solution will now convert radiology from a conventional film based department into a digital filmless environment.
Implementing GE’s Centricity RIS/PACS system will have a significant positive impact on the two county hospitals in Roskilde and Køge, located west and south of Copenhagen. Medical staffs of 1,800 people manage the 500-beds hospital in Roskilde, and roughly 27,000 patients are treated annually. Together with the Køge hospital, more than 150,000 examinations were taken in 2006 in 30 different modalities. The new RIS/PACS system will efficiently link all modalities such as orthopaedics, cardiology, intensive care, anaesthesia and oncology - no matter if it’s located in Roskilde, Køge or outside the district.
“In the future we will have more possibilities of interpreting patient information as there are new ways of analysing it”, says Anne Hintze, the leading Radiographer in Diagnostic Imaging at Roskilde and Køge. Enormous amounts of data can be viewed within seconds, enlarged or reconstructed three dimensional if needed. “To us, this means easy yet comprehensive tools supporting our day to day decisions. The outcome is great; much better diagnosis and faster, personalized treatment for the patient”, says Hintze.
Centricity RIS/PACS will replace an existing system, introducing a completely revolutionized workflow. All clinicians will have immediate access from any PC at any site. There is no more searching for films, no need to store thousands of patient images manually and there are reduced waiting times for radiology reports. Labour intensive tasks, such as the transporting of x-ray films, image and report filing will now be eliminated. The speech recognition tremendously eases the work of doctors and administrators alike and significantly reduces reply times while setting up reports and diagnoses.
Denmark and the Nordic countries are further ahead in the use of Radiology Information Systems than other European regions. This is one of the reasons why
GE Healthcare is continuously seeking opportunities in these advanced environments. “The close cooperation with leading Danish customers such as Bornholm, Storstrøms and now Roskilde has been essential in driving the future development of new functions and processes in RIS/PACS”, said Juergen Reyinger, General Manager at GE Healthcare Integrated IT Solutions Europe, Middle East & Africa. “Technologically advanced hospital environments such as those seen in Denmark and across Northern Europe, reveal the challenges a state-of-the-art RIS/PACS needs to and can fulfil”, Reyinger added.
Equipped with the most up to date technology and managed by a team of internationally qualified and experienced healthcare professionals, the district’s objectives were not only to implement RIS/PACS inside the region, but also expand the digital environment to other healthcare enterprises in Denmark. Medical staff will have easy access to expert opinions anywhere within connected hospitals and clinics. The Roskilde district is exploring new possibilities and has taken one step closer towards providing better patient care for its local population.