Case Study
ABQ Health Partners Installs RIS/PACS at Five Locations in Less Than 10 Hours
By Susan Thomas
ABQ Health Partners Project Manager
ABQ Health Partners, the largest physician-owned multi-specialty medical group in the southwest, separated from its former ownership in the fall of 2007. As a newly independent group, ABQ Health Partners had to develop its own infrastructure for clinical systems, including PACS and RIS systems, on a very short timeframe.
Three finalists were invited for full-day demos that they completed with technologists and the project team.
After a robust, albeit quick, selection process ABQ Health Partners chose to implement Novarad's PACS and RIS systems throughout its multi-location enterprise. An interdisciplinary team of information technology and radiology professionals who carefully considered a number of possible vendors made this decision to select Novarad. Factors behind the decision included the vendor's ability to meet several criteria including the ability to support a thriving orthopedics practice, mammography capabilities, capital outlay options and a proven track record of quick implementations
Novarad met the necessary criteria and provided an alternative capital outlay model using annual image load to set pricing. This includes software and hardware updates at no additional cost.
In contrast to the capital purchase model that requires a significant upfront outlay, Novarad's subscription model uses the annual image load to set pricing. Everything is included-software, hardware, training, integration services, support and all software and hardware are updated at no additional cost.
ABQ Health Partners wasted no time creating an aggressive implementation schedule to meet its 4,000 study per month workload. Every room in every modality was booked solid during normal hours of operation leaving only 10 hours of downtime for implementation. Beginning at 9:00 p.m. after the last clinics had closed for the evening, Novarad was implemented enterprise-wide by 7:00 a.m. the following morning.
Training for the project team, radiologists and technologists was completed before and during the first week of operations with minimal interruption to workflow and patient throughput. To ensure maximum productivity, remote training and applications allow for continuing education and training of new employees as well as refresher classes as needed without charge. Since implementation, ABQ Health Partners has experienced improvements to workflow efficiencies resulting in increased studies without increasing personnel costs.
Contributors to these workflow efficiencies include factors such as the RIS and PACS being built on the same database, which ensures the best possible integration between the systems. The systems are designed to work in concert with a close attention as to how actions in one system affect the other. Images and reports are shared across the platforms without costly interfaces to manage and maintain.
As ABQ needs to add or modify services, Novarad's systems are able to change and grow with them. There are no charges for adding equipment or modifying configurations. The only additional cost that will be incurred is for the increased storage used. There are no budget surprises.
During and since the installation, Novarad has been available and responsive to issues that inevitably arise during implementations of this magnitude. ABQ Health Partners remains satisfied with the decision to utilize the Novarad PACS and RIS systems and confident in the quality and accuracy of multi-modality images it offers our patients through this system.
Susan Thomas is a project manager with ABQ Health Partners responsible for heading selection, installation and testing of the medical group's radiology system.
