PACS Integrated with Workflow System Designed to Meet Accreditation Requirements

A picture archiving and communication system (PACS) has been integrated with communication and workflow tools to help radiology departments meet accreditation requirements.

Agfa HealthCare (Mortsel, Belgium), a leading provider of information technology (IT)-enabled clinical workflow and diagnostic imaging solutions, reported that it has expanded its technical integration of Impax 6.0 radiology PACS with qiVue and caseVue workflow, quality improvement, and communications products from peerVue (Sarasota, FL, USA), a provider of niche healthcare software solutions.

Agfa HealthCare will become a reseller for peerVue's qiVue, a workflow, quality, and communication system, and caseVue, a teaching file and content management solution, enabling Agfa HealthCare to offer qiVue and caseVue to its Impax radiology PACS customers. The integrated Agfa HealthCare/peerVue solution allows radiology departments to meet increased regulatory and quality challenges while providing an easy-to-use, tightly integrated workflow.

The solution helps enable radiology departments to meet requirements for accreditation by the American College of Radiology (ACR; Reston, VA, USA) and is in compliance with The Joint Commission's [U.S.] National Patient Safety Goals. The functionality includes critical results reporting, peer review, emergency department discrepancy management, technologist quality control, and teaching files.

"Teaming with peerVue supports our strategy of providing customers with the tools and the technology they need to improve the delivery of patient care and efficiency,” said Lenny Reznik, director, enterprise imaging and information, Agfa HealthCare, U.S. "It allows them to comply more easily with recent changes in accreditation requirements, using a streamlined workflow. This single-vendor integrated solution helps meet customer needs to support best practices while reducing complexity.”

QiVue and caseVue are integrated into IMmpax workflow, providing physicians with single sign-on access to peerVue's web-based applications directly from the Impax desktop and allowing them to launch their Impax viewer from peerVue's application. This allows radiologists to be more efficient through simple point-and-click reporting of study discrepancies and other quality control and communication-related activities directly from the Impax desktop.

"Agfa HealthCare and peerVue have expanded their relationship, recognizing the growing need of healthcare providers to have tools and technologies that make it easier to track, report, and notify referring communities and accreditation organizations of critical results and quality related events,” said Kyle Lawton, president and CEO of peerVue LLC. "We're excited that Agfa HealthCare will be offering qiVue and caseVue to its growing customer base.”

PeerVue provides software and service solutions to integrate, streamline, and distribute clinical information and images across the healthcare enterprise. PeerVue strives for continuously measurable improvements in healthcare practice by assisting both IT vendors and care delivery organizations in delivering care with measurably increasing levels of quality.

Agfa HealthCare, a member of the Agfa-Gevaert Group, is a provider of IT-enabled clinical workflow and diagnostic image management solutions, and systems for capturing and processing images in hospitals and healthcare facilities.

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