Automating RIS orders at Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust
Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust is using a TalkingPoint automation to create RIS orders for medical photography.
Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust covers South Wiltshire, North and East Dorset and South West Hampshire. The Trust uses SECTRA PACS to manage radiological images.
Since 2016, all medical photography is also managed within the PACS system.
Driving better care
Capturing medical photography images into the PACS has helped to streamline care, allowing clinicians to view images from any workstation
For example, nurses photograph wounds before re-dressing them. By using ipads and UniView, an app-based version of the PACS, clinicians can then view the image instantly, from anywhere in the Trust.
Capturing images into the PACS has helped to streamline patient care and from an end user’s perspective, there is no obvious administration.
Administrating RIS entries
Emma Jefferd, Radiology Information Systems Manager, explains:
“The radiology information system (RIS) is where we create appointments for scans etc. The issue is that Medical Photography images stored in the PACS are flagged as missing a RIS status.
Therefore, an entry must be created for a medical photography event for each case in the PACS.”
Creating the RIS event for each case is a complicated and labour-intensive process and the number of medical photos being added to the PACS continues to increase.
“This is important as it helps the Radiologists when they are reviewing and reporting cases; they see, in one place, that the patient has been reviewed and that they have had photography.
The RIS presents events in order, and we can move the images in from the PACS. Although consultants can see medical photography images in the PACS (by searching using the patient number), by adding the image to the RIS system, Radiologists can then see the entire record relating to the patient.”
The Covid pandemic resulted in a rapid increase in the use of virtual consultations with patients sending in digital photos. This prompted the PACS team to work with The TalkingPoint Team to develop an automation solution to alleviate the administrative burden of managing medical photography cases within the PACS.
Benefits
The medical photography automation solution was deployed in May 2022 and has been in continuous use since, processing in excess of 350 cases a month.
Deployment has freed up valuable staff time to work on special projects. Before TalkingPoint was in place, it was a full-time job for one person to bring all the medical images into the RIS system. Although this was normally managed by one of the PACS team, during extremely busy periods, a member of the medical photography team would also assist.
“Before TalkingPoint, it was a full-time job to bring all the medical images into the RIS system. We’ve gone from needing full time (37.5 hours) working on this to around 2 hours a day. This has freed up time to work on more varied projects and to support our colleagues in Cardiology and Endoscopy as these departments are now sending their images into the PACS.”
Emma Jefferd, Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust
