Customer Stories

Aultman Hospital

“We are glad we missed the interim RIS and PACS solutions of a few years ago. We moved from film and paper straight into a fully electronic integrated solution from one vendor. It’s a big cultural change, but our Fusion RIS/PACS solution is bringing cost and productivity enhancements I can budget on.”

Situation
As healthcare cost pressures started to build in the Canton, Ohio community, local business leaders turned to Aultman Hospital for explanations. Unfortunately, most of the cost increases came from outside insurance company pricing decisions. When the overall community started looking to them for cost leadership as well, Aultman responded with a viable community solution: a joint venture PPO with their medical staff that has successfully contained healthcare costs for the past 20 years. The result of this, however, is also a high accountability for costs within the Aultman system. When it came time to explore digital imaging solutions, Aultman was characteristically cautious. “We played the waiting game,” says Liz Getz, Associate Vice President of Radiology Services. “RIS and PACS weren’t integrated at first, and cost a lot of money. We were cost conscious, so we waited until it made financial sense to invest.”

As a major community healthcare system, Aultman Health Foundation provides over 250,000 imaging exams and includes 22 radiologists on staff. In addition to the main site at Aultman Hospital, three outpatient facilities located in North Canton, Massillon and Carrollton also provide radiology services. Although it is not a major medical research facility, the decision to move to a RIS/PACS solution was no small task for this complicated imaging network.

Requirements
Given the cost sensitivity at Aultman, price was a major consideration. With an entire community focus on containing healthcare costs, every project needs strong cost justification. An ability to show demonstrable results in cost savings and productivity enhancements, as well as offer a reasonably priced, scalable solution was essential to gaining positive support for the RIS/PACS investment.

Another key requirement was an integrated RIS/PACS solution from one vendor. Having seen area hospitals and imaging centers jump on the digital bandwagon, Aultman was well educated in the hidden costs associated with an unsuccessful transition. “Some of our competitors have been through several RIS and/or PACS solutions already,” says Getz. “We definitely wanted to avoid that path.”

Finally, Aultman decided that entering into a RIS/PACS decision meant creating a true partnership. Finding a vendor who could commit to a long term relationship, was willing to create a workflow solution specific to Aultman’s imaging needs, and who had the financial stability to stay to course with them were critical requirements in vendor selection.

Solution
Aultman decided on the Fusion RIS/PACS solution for its radiology clinical and business workflow. The solution extends throughout the hospital and into two of the largest outpatient facilities. In an effort to move toward minimal film and going paperless in the future, document management and digitizing capabilities were added as well.

One of the nicer aspects of the Fusion solution was the historical use of eFilm by the radiology group. According to Getz, Radiology Associates of Canton has been using eFilm for several years as a teleradiography reading solution. The Fusion RIS/PACS solution utilizes eFilm, giving the radiologists a familiar viewing environment and lowering training needs.

Another pleasant feature of this solution has been Merge eMed’s commitment to a long term relationship. One outcome of this is a joint development project to further customize the RIS for more of a hospital focus. In addition, Merge eMed has been able to extend its ClinicalPartnership Program to Aultman, giving access to leading edge clinical applications such as PET/CT fusion software.

Result
With only a few weeks of experience under their belts, the staff and physicians at Aultman have already seen results. “We are now only printing film in Special Procedures,” says Getz. “and we were able to cut seventy five percent of our film budget for 2006. In addition, we anticipate labor savings to come as the productivity improvements take hold over the next two to three years.”

“Moving to a digital imaging solution is a big cultural change, and the radiologists have varied greatly in their ability to adapt,” Getz continues. “Still, we know we have a partner in Merge eMed, and we are confident in our ability to continue to make this the best workflow solution for Aultman.” David Thiel, Senior Vice President, adds, “This is the smoothest system implementation Aultman Hospital has ever seen.”

On a patient care note, word is spreading throughout Aultman about the patient in the heart surgeon’s office. As Mr. Thiel tells, “The surgeon was waiting for the films, but then realized he had instant access to the Fusion RIS/PACS information and images. He logged on to the system, reviewed the report and images, and immediately sent the patient to surgery. What a great example of the significant patient benefit of our new digital imaging solution from Merge eMed.”

See Meridian Imaging Success Story (RIS/PACS)
See Bronson Healthcare Group Success Story (PACS)
See West Coast Radiology Success Story (RIS/PACS)
See Regions Hospital Success Story (PACS)
See Pediatric Diagnostic Imaging Success Story (RIS/PACS)

PLUGINS

You will need Acrobat Reader to view special items on this page. If you have not installed this free software on your computer, it can be downloaded directly from the Adobe website.

You may need the Powerpoint Viewer to view some presentations. If you don't have Powerpoint, click here to download the Powerpoint viewer for Windows.