Medical imaging goes filmless

The days of doctors posting X-ray images on lighted white boards are over at Hilton Head Regional Medical Center.

Instead of shuffling through envelopes full of negatives and using magnifying glasses to search for problems, doctors and radiologists now can view the images on powerful computers with screen resolutions higher than the human eye can process.

With a click of the mouse, physicians can magnify images to pinpoint tiny abnormalities in image scans -- a feature not available with printouts. What's more, those physicians can do it all from their personal practices or even in their homes.

As of this week, doctors will access MRIs, X-rays, ultrasounds and CAT scans through the hospital's new $2 million picture archiving and communication systems, also known as PACS.

Photo: Dr. Robert Clodfelter demonstrates the magnification capabilities of the new PACS system Monday in an emergency room office at the Hilton Head Regional Medical Center. Kristin Goode | The Island Packet

Photo: Radiology technicians Tiffany Schweitzer, left, and Victoria Riddle ask Eric Miller, PACS administrator, a question Monday at the medical center. Kristin Goode | The Island Packet

Physicians said saving time is the most important benefit of the electronic system.

In the past, technicians would have to take the films, develop them and deliver them to the radiology department for doctors to view. That could take as long as two days.

Now, as soon as the images are shot, they're uploaded directly to a high-speed transmission line and loaded onto doctors' computers. The entire process can take less than an hour.

"Waiting," said Dr. Robert Hewes, a radiologist, "is the worst thing we go through. Patients want answers. We want to be able to provide them as fast as we can."

Dr. Robert Clodfelter, medical director of the Emergency Department, said having the images available electronically aids in diagnosis, saves valuable time in emergencies and allows doctors to consult with radiologists off site in real-time.

Through a secure, online system, images can be accessed remotely from any computer with Internet access.

A radiologist "can be at home on his personal computer and look at the exact same image I'm looking at," Clodfelter said. "There's really no comparison to the old white-board way. ... It's a good time to be practicing medicine."

It's part of Hilton Head Regional's move toward an entirely electronic patient data system, which began last year when all paper was removed from the Emergency Department.

Within the last 18 months, medical records, the pharmacy system and some patient files were moved to the electronic system. In time, charts for inpatients will be paperless as well, said hospital CEO Elizabeth Lamkin.

"This is one of a series of things we're doing to take the hospital into the Information Age," she said.

The PACS system is fairly common among South Carolina hospitals, said Patti Smoake, a spokeswoman with the state hospital association.

Coastal Carolina Medical Center in Hardeeville has been using an older version of the computerized systems for a couple of years.

Within a year, Tenet, the parent company of Coastal Carolina and Hilton Head Regional, will upgrade that system so physicians have remote access to the images.

Source