On-Demand PACS at Glacial Ridge Reduces Costs by 50%

PACS adoption results in revolutionary cost savings for rural facility; integration to Healthland HIS key to success

MINNEAPOLIS—June 15 , 2009—7 Medical Systems™, a leader in on-demand picture archiving and communication system (PACS), teleradiology and electronic medical record (EMR) solutions for healthcare, today announced that the successful adoption of 7 Medical's on-demand PACS enabled Glacial Ridge Health System (GRHS) to reduce costs by 50 percent over film.

Glacial Ridge Health System (GRHS) is a rural, critical access hospital located in Glenwood, Minnesota. Committed to providing high quality services, enhancing the quality of life and promoting healthy lifestyles for patients, clients, employees, and communities, Glacial Ridge delivers services including general medical and surgical care, obstetrics, and cardiac intensive care, and plays host to a trauma center, emergency department, and health education program.

Located in Pope County, the 19-bed hospital and satellite office serve more than 4,300 residents in the Glacial Ridge Hospital District, including Grove Lake, Chippewa Falls, Gilchrist, Glenwood, Lake Johanna, Reno, Bangor, Westport, and Leven, and the individual cities of Brooten, Glenwood, Villard, Westport, Long Beach, and Sedan. Glacial Ridge employs more than 200 people.

THE CHALLENGE
Glacial Ridge was upgrading its analog X-ray machines to digital capabilities with two new computed radiography (CR) units. As a part of its digital strategy, the hospital wanted to move away from film to a picture archiving and communication system (PACS).

GRHS weighed the costs and benefits of purchasing and maintaining a PACS system in-house against subscribing to a PACS service. The key criteria included costs, integration to its existing hospital information system (HIS), turnaround time on radiology reports, ease of use and training for physicians and staff, improved workflows, and bandwidth. Glacial Ridge also faced a tight adoption timeline for the new system.

"We were all for PACS and going filmless, but getting there was a challenge. We had lived in an analog world for so long. There was so much to consider, and fear of change made us guarded," said Jean Mattson, Radiology Manager of GRHS. "7 Medical delivered a system that achieved our goals and saved us money. Timing was really tight, and our 7 Medical project manager kept the project moving to ensure on-time completion."

THE SOLUTION
7 Medical's PACS offers hospitals and clinics across the nation an innovative way to take advantage of the same technologies traditionally available only to large hospitals with big budgets. Its on-demand, or Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), business model removes barriers to entry such as budget constraints and lack of clinical and technical expertise.

"7 Medical's on-demand PACS was different than anything we had ever heard of," said Mattson. "We didn't know you could buy PACS as a service where you paid only for the number of imaging studies you used every month. Eliminating that huge upfront capital investment made it possible for us to have a PACS service at a monthly fee we can afford. And all the technology upgrades are included, so we don't have to worry about getting hit with maintenance and upgrade fees after the first year. That was huge."

GRHS adopted a turnkey PACS system without incurring costs. Critical to the project was integration of the PACS to the existing Healthland HIS (formerly Dairlyland), further automating orders and workflow and increasing efficiency. "The ability to send orders electronically and have them populated in the worklist at the modality significantly cut down on data entry errors," said Mattson.

States Mattson, "We were able to dramatically reduce costs by 50 percent over film. 7 Medical managed everything for us, and even worked with our HIS provider and CR vendor for integration. Their expertise and support during and since roll-out has been exceptional. Training for our physicians and staff made the transition less painful than anticipated. We wish we had done it sooner."

Glacial Ridge's PACS service and Web viewing is also powered by a high-speed T1 connection through 7 Medical's bandwidth partner, Zayo Enterprise Networks. Zayo is a local service provider with an MPLS private data network for voice, video, data and collocation services to rural healthcare facilities throughout Minnesota.

PACS AS A SERVICE
With 7 Medical, healthcare facilities purchase PACS as a service, similar to how consumers buy Internet, cable TV or cell phone services at home. As a turnkey PACS service, 7 Medical provided everything GRHS needed including hardware, software, integration, service and support for the PACS-no upfront or ongoing capital expenses involved for hardware and software. Instead, GRHS pays an affordable monthly fee to use the PACS service, while retaining ownership of all of their data.

7 Medical's solution includes a PACS clinical project manager to manage every step of the process, from workflow and project planning to installation, integration and testing-not to mention comprehensive training on how to use the PACS system for physicians and clinical staff. The on-demand PACS service is backed by 24/7 service and support, so 7 Medical's clinical and IT staff are on call to respond around the clock.

THE OUTCOME: PEACE OF MIND
Filmless since April 2008, the on-demand PACS at GRHS supports six modalities including two CRs, CT, ultrasound, and mobile MRI and nuclear medicine. More than 75 doctors, nurses, referring physicians and staff are currently using the PACS and the Web viewer. "Radiology reports are turned around quicker than we ever imagined. Our doctors and referring physicians like using the Web viewer to view images and reports online," said Mattson. "Patients like being able to see their images immediately after they're taken, especially in the ER," said Dr. D. Eric Westberg. "We can show patients their images in the exam room, and they can take images on CD with them to referring physicians. Very impressive."

GRHS achieved their goals with a PACS service they can afford and that can grow with them-not to mention that is integrated to their HIS. As an added bonus, the system has built-in disaster recovery protection and HIPAA compliance. Mattson adds, "The PACS system is easy to use and the service we receive from 7 Medical has exceeded expectations. We have peace of mind knowing our costs are predictable and that there are no surprises down the line."

To view or download the full story, visit www.7medical.com/solutions/casestudies/glacialridge.html.

ABOUT 7 MEDICAL SYSTEMS, LLC
7 Medical Systems™, LLC (www.7medical.com) is a leading provider of on-demand PACS, teleradiology, EMR and computing solutions for healthcare. The Minneapolis-based company delivers reliable, affordable solutions to critical access hospitals, imaging centers, radiology groups and ambulatory clinics. Rather than investing capital to own and manage servers, hardware, software and IT resources in-house, healthcare facilities outsource these critical functions to 7 Medical. They trade in hefty capital expenses for more affordable monthly usage fees-paying only for what they use. 7 Medical's clinical project managers enable facilities to efficiently automate workflows and integrate disparate systems to ensure successful integration, implementation and training. On-demand services are available anytime, anywhere, with 24/7 service and support and built-in disaster recovery and HIPAA compliance.

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7 Medical Systems™, 7p PRM-on-Demand™, 7i Imaging-on-Demand™ and the 7 Medical Systems logo are trademarks for 7 Medical Systems, LLC. All other trademarks or trade names are the properties of their respective holders.

Media Contact:
Loan D. Gordon
7 Medical Systems, LLC
952.230.9220
lgordon@7medical.com