April 7th, 2008
It has been more than a week since my last post…mainly because there was so much to do to get this system up and running that it didn’t leave much time to write.
The go-live went pretty well last week. While we still have a few loose ends to tie up I think it would be safe to call the project a success at this time. A couple of things contributed to that success that were not only important to this project but are essential to others that are similar in nature.
Training was key in this project. In the past our practice agreed to do a beta test of another PACS software that was reasonably different than what our doctors and staff were using up to that point. There was no scheduled training (as too often is the case in a busy practice) and we tried to learn on the fly. It just didn’t work. The doctors and staff quickly got frustrated and rather than get behind on the patient load they resorted back to the inferior software because they knew how to manage it.
This time we carved out some training time for each doctor and each x-ray tech just prior to the go-live and needless to say, things went much better. Lesson learned: you cannot expect staff and doctors in a busy practice to learn new applications on the fly. You have to be willing to find time in their schedules for training!
Also, I think “ease of use” or “intuitiveness” is an extremely important element in choosing applications for people who use technology as opposed to managing it. Some applications have great features; however, if the software is too complex for the average user to utilize it for its main functions then it has less value than an application that is less feature-rich but easier to use for the main functions.
Keep these things in mind when considering projects…I hope this is helpful. Feel free to contact me for more help in planning your IT projects.
Tags: IT Project, PACS, Picture Archiving and Communication System
Posted in Project of the Day | 3 Comments »
March 19th, 2008
I have decided to start my blog with what consumes most of my time currently. One of several big projects I have going on now is the implementation of a new PACS system. PACS systems are used to view MRI, CT and X-Ray images. They can also include images from arthroscope and bone density equipment as well as other types of imaging equipment.
There seems to be two distinct PACS markets – Hospital and Private Practice. Interestingly, the vendors that sell in one market do not typically sell in the other.
I am working with the Private Practice vendors and it has been an interesting process. My client has an older version of software from one vendor and has purchased the latest and greatest from another. The older PACS software owned by the client runs on a Java platform and while it had nice features it seemed to constantly have hangs and lock-ups due to memory leaks on the client side as well as the server side. This older version was bought several years ago by another vendor who has since re-written the software on a much more stable .net platform. My impression of the new re-write is that it has real potential, but like any version 1 or version 2 software it still has some issues that will need to be (and likely will be) addressed in later versions.
My client chose to switch to a more mature product that is also written in .net and so far appears promising in terms of end-user ease of use as well as functionality (lots of bells and whistles!). What is really odd about PACS is that all the players agree to send and receive according to DICOM standards; however, once you have been using one of these systems for some time, you accumulate a lot of large file-size images that have to be stored electronically. This is where the issue begins…the vendors seem to all use their own proprietary methods for archiving these studies. This doesn’t present a problem as long as you stay married to one vendor; however, to divorce one to marry another will cost some alimony in terms of pulling those archived studies back into a format that can be imported into another system! Something to consider when you sign on with a PACS vendor…I would recommend you negotiate in your initial contract that should you (the client) decide to migrate to a new PACS system at a later date there will be no charge for services required to migrate the data (a prenuptial agreement!).
Tags: PACS, Picture Archiving and Communication System
Posted in Project of the Day | 3 Comments »
March 11th, 2008
Distributed IT Services, Inc. is becoming a reality before my own eyes…and it is extremely exciting. This company is the culmination of some very hard work and dedication by a number of people. I am looking forward to serving my current and future customers with the most reliable and trustworthy IT consulting service available!
Posted in Getting Started | 2 Comments »