Patient Reports Directly to EMRs

March 7th, 2008 by Jon Mertz

8 Votes | Average: 4.25 out of 5 (8 votes, average: 4.25 out of 5)

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Posted in Radiology Workflow, EMR, Healthcare Integration

A recent article in Radinformatics highlighted the radiology workflow of one of our customers - EPIC Imaging. The article is entitled Look, No Hands: Reports Go Directly to Referrer EMRs.

As the title implies, the article is about how EPIC Imaging implemented an electronic means to connect with various referring physician practices and send patient reports quickly, efficiently, and accurately. John Griffith is the CIO at EPIC Imaging, and he and his team have taken the initiative to solve the radiology workflow and operational challenge.

A few highlights from the article:

Addressing Physician Requirements: “The physicians wanted the reports to show up automatically in each patient’s electronic medical record (EMR). They wanted to open the patient’s EMR and have the report right there waiting for them, with no staff time spent clicking links or handling paper.”
Maintaining High Service Levels: “We have been held as the gold standard for providing service… but Epic administrators knew that if they were to retain that gold-standard mark in the face of increasing competition, they would have to answer the demand for electronic report delivery.”
Delivering to the Physician - Choices: “We could not have used a Web-based system because the physician would still have had to log in, look up the patient, and move the report into the chart… The demand was to get that report seamlessly into the chart with very little human interaction.”
Leveraging Healthcare Interfaces: “We had an existing interface that was sending results from our RIS to our PACS. We redirected that results feed to the NeoTool engine, and then NeoTool forwarded the report from there onto the PACS… Then, Epic constructed a rules base to tell NeoTool how to route the report to the referring physician’s EMR and directly into the patient’s electronic folder.”
Achieving Positive Impact:
- “Clients, once interfaces are complete, will find report delivery much more convenient. That means that Epic will probably retain their business, or get more of it.”
- “Quicker, more direct reports mean that patient care can be expedited. From the standpoint of eliminating human intervention and becoming more solidly electronic, we improve patient care.”

Since the above bullets are just clips from the article, take a few minutes and read the article. It provides great insights into how EPIC Imaging (case study PDF) understood their physician requirements and addressed them in a creative and operationally-sound way while also - and importantly - improving the way patient care is delivered.

Congratulations to John and his team!