Gaylord Hospital Chooses CoActiv EXAM-PACS®
Reaps the Benefits of Filmless Conversion with No Capital Expenditure
Gaylord Hospital, a long-term acute care hospital in Wallingford, CT, has selected CoActiv Medical to supply its advanced EXAM-PACS family of products to support the acquisition, analysis, distribution and archiving of medical images. The decision followed an extensive search involving six vendors representing every segment of the market.
CoActiv was selected, in part, because the company demonstrated that the hospital could offset its PACS capital expenses through the savings realized over hardcopy imaging within five years.
CoActiv also installed a fully integrated CR solution along with the PACS.
“CoActiv was able to show us that essentially our PACS investment would pay for itself in five years,” says Paul Trigilia, RT, RCP, MPH, director of respiratory, radiology and laboratory services for Gaylord Hospital. “EXAM-PACS offered the full range of advanced features we needed at a reasonable price. Additionally, CoActiv was able to supply us with a CR, and their customer support package was superb. They provided a simple, cost-effective turnkey solution.”
“CoActiv is pleased that we were able to scale down our financial model to allow Gaylord to cover the costs of the digital transition in a similar timeframe to a larger hospital,” said Edward Heere, President and CEO of CoActiv Medical. “Even with a relatively low volume of exams, the installation made financial sense and offered a range of important additional benefits.”
Trigilia points out that CoActiv implemented its offsite QUAD-REDUNDANT ARCHIVING, which duplicates all data in four locations for high-quality disaster protection and HIPAA-compliance. “This protection also made CoActiv an excellent choice for the hospital,” he said.
As a 109-bed, specialized facility that is expanding to 137 beds in 2008, Gaylord utilizes x-ray imaging only. Prior to the PACS installation, exams were acquired in analog format. At that time, however, numerous patients were entering the hospital with exams in other modalities on CDs. According to Trigilia, a major impetus for the PACS purchase was to create a means of viewing and storing these studies.
“We wanted to create and maintain integrated onsite exam records across all modalities,” he said. “Since we were dealing with so much information in digital format acquired outside of our hospital, the only way to implement this was through a PACS and conversion to digital x-ray acquisition.”
The conversion accomplished this goal and also offered additional benefits. Gaylord studies are read by an offsite contract radiology group, which prior to this received films by courier. Through CoActiv’s web-based system, radiologists now can log on over the Internet to view up-to-the-minute worklists and read films immediately. This has significantly speeded exam turnaround. Moreover, hospital clinicians who want to view films also can access them immediately over the hospital network. “It’s been a win-win situation all around, without making major financial demands on a small hospital,” according to Trigilia.
CoActiv installed the PACS and CR together and the system was up and running in a day. Three weeks later, the hospital went live with a new radiology reading group. “All the physicians love it, especially because they need not leave their offices to view images—and they can access imaging data anywhere in the world over the Internet. Radiologists also are extremely pleased. The CoActiv support has been terrific.”
As a result, Gaylord plans to expand the radiology department and PACS with CT and ultrasound going forward. “Naturally, we will continue to work with CoActiv.”
About Gaylord Hospital
Gaylord Hospital is a long-term acute care hospital that specializes in the treatment of medically complex patients, rehabilitation and sleep medicine. Based in Wallingford, CT, Gaylord Hospital also operates four outpatient therapy centers and four sleep medicine centers in the state. For more information about Gaylord Hospital, call (203) 284-2800, or visit their website.