How To Shop For Digital Lab Solutions
By Tim Thigpen, EditorWhether you are growing an existing system or starting fresh, it makes sense to shop for a vendor who can tailor a scalable solution to your needs & budget. When you organize your thinking around a core list of needs it will guide you to identify the "must have" from "nice to have" features, regardless of the vendor who earns your business. These core needs almost always include clinical, operating & administrative objectives.
If you are satisfying a local network need for a echo or vascular lab, you have an array of off-the- shelf solutions . You can get a very nice network for less than you think. You may or may not gain operating efficiencies in terms of an ability to do more patients-per-day, but you can expect a significant return on investment if you tackle the issue of electronic patient registering, billing & reporting. Most physicians also report improved working conditions when reading digital studies.
Enterprise solutions are by the very nature more complex & seamless integration between your lab & remote service sites like the operating & emergency / critical care need to be kept in mind. On call & remote physicians "last-mile" solution should be accessed. Efficiencies across an entire division or subspecialty groups can be anticipated 3-9 months after a network's implementation.
You will encounter some proponents of vendor specific quantification or 4D in the reading room. You will want to balance these "exotic" leading edge applications against the equally important consideration of scheduling, billing & administrative issues. If you do choose vendor specific workstations for nich applications be sure it "plays nicely" with your larger enterprise.
You can usually find at least two or three different vendors that have good solutions that fit your budget.
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