Gateshead Trust Streamlines Workflow, Improves Data Quality with Carestream RIS/PACS

HEMEL HEMPSTEAD, UK, August 2015 —Gateshead Health NHS Foundation Trust, located in the North East of England and one of the first Foundation Trusts in the UK, is identifying leaner processes and improved workflow since installing CARESTREAM Vue RIS and CARESTREAM Vue PACS systems.

The Radiology department, based at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, currently performs around 165,000 examinations a year and Clare Jones, Radiology IT Systems Manager at Gateshead has already seen improvements in workflow and data quality from the new Carestream RIS/PACS: “We wanted a fully integrated RIS/PACS from one provider that would be delivered and supported by the solution provider and not a third party, in order to eliminate the risks that previously existed with our legacy systems and to reduce the resource intensive processes we needed to manage them,” she said. “The Carestream RIS/PACS has definitely streamlined workflow as well as providing improved Voice Recognition and data quality. All this contributes to an overall improvement in patient safety.”

The new web-enabled CARESTREAM Vue PACS provides fast and easy access to the clinical tools and applications the team at Queen Elizabeth Hospital need, integrated into one efficient workspace, while the CARESTREAM Vue RIS is improving workflow by automating the patient’s diagnostic journey from order entry to results distribution. The web-based radiology information system is designed to adapt to the needs of multi-site hospitals and is accessible across the Trust.

“Data quality on the RIS/PACS is improving all of the time as the Trust have a better view of the data across both systems and are in control of updating it as required,” explained Clare. “We’ve definitely removed a number of wasteful workarounds and replaced with them with Lean processes and workflow.”

“Both systems are very intuitive and easy to use,” she said. “The majority of enterprise PACS users outside of the Radiology department made the transition with online training and additional support on request and those requests were few and far between. Whilst the period of transition was not without its challenges – and what major change projects aren’t – it didn’t take long for users to become comfortable with the new systems and ways of working.”

“The implementation has given us the opportunity to streamline processes and remove a lot of workarounds that were required to address risks inherent to our legacy systems. Overall the current workflow is more efficient than the one we had prior to implementation of the new systems.”

“Carestream provided all of the necessary resources to ensure that the systems were implemented safely within the required timescales. The implementation team employed a very flexible approach and worked in partnership with the Trust project team and other third party suppliers as requested. This approach has continued post go-live as we look to exploit the solution to enable further service improvements.”

(l-r) Charlie McCaffrey, Managing Director, Carestream Health UK; Dr Hilary Spencer (Consultant Radiologist); Clare Jones (PACS Manager); Lynn Eddon (Project Manager); Nicole Conroy (RIS Manager) all from Gateshead Health NHS Foundation Trust.