Practice Management

We are a hospital based radiology practice of 20 plus rads using McKesson PACS and Powerscribe360. 
Praises for both products.  
EHR =Cerner  (No comments on this since I don't use it much yet.)  

At various times,  either because of hardware issues or networking issues, I am hearing from rads about the need to re-boot more than what would seem normal.  Mammographers reading exams with tomo have the most issues.  Someone had a great recommendation to start with gaming computers.  Wondering if anyone has any other insight on IT issues.  

Insight? Recommendations? Outside consultants who have unique expertise?  I am sensitive to IT in hospital systems and what they must have to go through to be this connected.  Just wondering if anyone has had an aha moment in this area.  I recently splurged and purchased an I-phone X (10).  I might have been several generations behind but commented on how fast it was.  I was told that older phones are made to slow down so people have incentive to upgrade.  It might be hard to argue cost justification for myself and upgrading for speed alone.  Since I know the value of radiologists' time in our practice, just curious if there is any similar slow down in hardware or software etc. in PACS systems etc.  

Thanks to all for sharing your wisdom.

Gayle Schreier

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Gayle Schreier MBA
Business Manager
Roper Radiology
Charleston SC
(843) 724-2015
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Original Message------

We are a hospital based radiology practice of 20 plus rads using McKesson PACS and Powerscribe360. 
Praises for both products.  
EHR =Cerner  (No comments on this since I don't use it much yet.)  

At various times,  either because of hardware issues or networking issues, I am hearing from rads about the need to re-boot more than what would seem normal.  Mammographers reading exams with tomo have the most issues.  Someone had a great recommendation to start with gaming computers.  Wondering if anyone has any other insight on IT issues.  

Insight? Recommendations? Outside consultants who have unique expertise?  I am sensitive to IT in hospital systems and what they must have to go through to be this connected.  Just wondering if anyone has had an aha moment in this area.  I recently splurged and purchased an I-phone X (10).  I might have been several generations behind but commented on how fast it was.  I was told that older phones are made to slow down so people have incentive to upgrade.  It might be hard to argue cost justification for myself and upgrading for speed alone.  Since I know the value of radiologists' time in our practice, just curious if there is any similar slow down in hardware or software etc. in PACS systems etc.  

Thanks to all for sharing your wisdom.

Gayle Schreier

------------------------------
Gayle Schreier MBA
Business Manager
Roper Radiology
Charleston SC
(843) 724-2015
------------------------------

Original Message------

Gayle - Are you talking about issues while reading from home, or from inside the facility?

The ugly reality is that rebooting PCs is often the fix to problems. (They're complex pieces of equipment and keeping them stable takes a backseat to adding features.) However, there are things that users can do to reduce the problem. Keeping them "clean" is important. By clean I mean using good browsing habits, not installing questionable software, keeping updates installed (unless there are strong compatibility reasons not to), etc. Ideally, the computer used to take call from home should be used ONLY for that purpose. (That's not always a popular idea but consider the cost of lost productivity... a single call shift can probably pay the cost of a decent PC.)

The gaming computer idea is a good one because they're overbuilt.

Make sure remote rads use www.speedtest.net when they are having speed issue (and when they're not, to get a baseline). Using it they can see if there's a problem with their own internet connection that has nothing to do with the hospitals capacity.

I've never heard of a deliberate "slowing down" in PC hardware/connection, other than just the slowdown that can happen when your PC has a bunch of applications running in the background. But, if you keep a computer around for 5-10 years and upgrade software you will definitely eventually perceive a slowdown because it wasn't built to run the newer, more demanding, generation of operating systems and software.