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Cottage Hospital Improves Patient Care, Cuts Costs With Radiology Upgrade

Posted on: Thursday, 8 November 2007, 09:01 CST

Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital's use of advanced radiology technology has improved patient care while cutting labor costs, according to a study to be presented this month to the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).

The hospital achieved these gains by integrating digital dictation with its radiology picture archiving and communications system (PACS). Among the benefits of the integration have been a substantial reduction in labor needs, much faster completion of emergency radiology reports, and a return on investment in only two years.

The study's full results will be reported by Michael Trambert, M.D., in a podium presentation at RSNA's annual meeting, Nov. 25-30 in Chicago. The presentation is titled "Integrated Dictation with PACS: Two-Year ROI with Decreased Transcription FTE and Shortened Report Turnaround" and will be given on Sunday, Nov. 25 from 11:45 a.m. to 11:55 a.m. in the McCormick Place Convention Center, Room 404CD. The study was undertaken by Dr. Trambert, and Dr. Alex Knapik -- a radiology resident at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital.

Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital is a large acute-care teaching hospital in Santa Barbara, Calif. Dr. Trambert is lead radiologist for PACS reengineering for Cottage Health System, the hospital's parent organization.

In the study, PACS integration with a dictation system from DR Systems was compared to Cottage's previous dictation method. In that arrangement, dictation was not integrated with PACS and reports were transcribed to a separate radiology information system (RIS). The dictation system that was integrated with the PACS was part of a comprehensive reporting system from the PACS maker, and involved structured template reporting.

Dr. Trambert and Dr. Knapik found that use of integrated reporting made it possible for Cottage to reduce its staffing for transcription by 45 percent. The integration also significantly reduced turnaround time for radiology reporting, particularly for STAT (emergency). Report times for these highest priority exams improved by 70 percent.

Complete integration with the PACS results in a system that automatically "populates" many aspects of a radiologist's report, instead of requiring transcriptionists to do so.

The study also found the integration to be economical, with cost savings covering the cost of the technology purchase and integration in just two years.

At the time study results were gathered, Cottage had not enabled the voice recognition feature that is part of the computerized reporting system. That feature is expected to result in additional benefits.

"The real beneficiaries of the PACS/dictation integration are the patients," said Dr. Trambert. "The design of our PACS makes it possible for referring and consulting doctors to view images almost immediately after the exam is completed. Faster report turnaround means patients' doctors can more quickly review radiology reports with images on the Internet or hospital network. That translates to faster diagnosis and treatment, which is vital in emergency cases."

Dr. Trambert and Dr. Knapik's presentation will also describe the PACS' unique voice clip feature, which has been in use since the PACS system was installed in 1998. That function makes results of the exam available to referring and consulting physicians just a few minutes after exam completion.

The voice clip is an audio file dictated by the reading radiologist that contains his or her verbal assessment of the exam. Like the exam's images and the written report, it can be accessed via the Web as well as on the hospital's internal network.

"Many physicians in our community consider the voice clip sufficient," said Dr. Trambert. "For doctors who prefer to wait for a text report, the PACS/dictation integration has been an important addition to our service.

"We expect our turnaround time for written reports to drop further. We're now using Web-based transcription at Cottage. This allows transcription to take place on nights and weekends, which should also significantly improve overall report times."

About Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital

Founded in 1888, Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital is the largest acute care teaching hospital between Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay area. With annual admissions of more than 18,000 patients, 38,000 emergency department visits, and 2,500 births, Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital is renowned for its comprehensive maternal-child and pediatric services (Cottage Children's Hospital); cardiac, neurosurgical, and oncology programs; a level II trauma center; and outpatient services. Those outpatient services include sophisticated diagnostic radiology, outpatient surgery, psychiatric and chemical dependency services, and a comprehensive eye center.

Cottage Hospital's medical staff of more than 600 includes specialists in all major clinical areas, many of whom are involved in the training and education of new physicians in the hospital's internal medicine, general surgery, and radiology residency programs.

For more information, visit www.cottagehealthsystem.org.

Source: Business Wire

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