Just when you think you’ve had it up to here with all those quantitative arguments in favor of PACS (picture archiving and communications systems), somebody stops you cold with more inclusive, nearly noble motives.
At least that’s how June Boyd tells it.
“Why do you want this grief if no one is really pushing you?” Boyd remembers asking a longtime colleague, a radiology manager leading the charge toward PACS at Presbyterian Health of Dallas (PHD) (Texas) a few years back.
“I really don’t want to do it,” the woman answered, “but I think it’s the right thing to do. I think it’s where the future lies. I think it’s the best thing for the patient in healthcare delivery.”
Of course, it is imperative, even mandatory, that an organization base its PACS planning and implementation on the hard facts — productivity gains, financial costs, filmless operations, to name just a few. But a couple of qualitative considerations — compassionate concern for patient welfare and a practical prediction for the future of healthcare delivery — appear to have played just as important a role in promoting PACS at PHD.
Please refer to the August 2001 issue for the complete story. For information on article reprints, contact Martin St. Denis
