Cody Regional Health

Cody, Wyoming

“When I joined Cody Regional Health about four years ago, one of my first responsibilities was the replacement of the AGFA HealthCare PACS,” begins Eric Lipe, Director of Radiology.

For 15 years, the AGFA HealthCare PACS met the needs of radiologists, clinicians and patients at Cody Regional Health, in Cody, Wyoming. But by 2020, it was clear a more modern system was needed to support the hospital in its digital transformation and patient care excellence goals.

“Furthermore, we needed a system that could support 3D mammography, which was a priority project for the hospital. For Cody Regional Health, providing our patients with technologically advanced equipment is critical and to do that, all the pieces of the puzzle needed to fit together.”

While the hospital had a long-term relationship with AGFA HealthCare, Eric Lipe had not worked with the vendor before. This situation enabled a very balanced approach to selecting a replacement for the PACS. “On one hand, the radiologists, technologists etc., liked working with AGFA HealthCare, and wanted to stay with them. On the other hand, as I was coming in from outside, I was looking very objectively at the technology and the service. I wanted to be certain that after the go-live we would receive excellent support.”

“We looked at several different vendors and solutions on the market, and found that Enterprise Imaging and AGFA HealthCare were the right fit for us.”

Just as the implementation project for the AGFA HealthCare Enterprise Imaging system was getting off the ground, the global COVID-19 pandemic struck. “AGFA HealthCare could not send their people to our site: everything would have to be done remotely. We thought about delaying implementation – but that would set us back with the 3D mammography project as well. So, we took a leap and moved forward,” explains Eric Lipe.

Despite the lack of physical presence of the AGFA HealthCare team, the implementation was executed smoothly, although it was an ‘interesting’ experience, he continues. “AGFA HealthCare maintained a very close presence, even remotely. They worked together with our PACS administrator to set up the system and then walked our radiologists step-by-step through the configuration of their workstations.”

The PACS administrator and Eric Lipe also attended in-person training at AGFA HealthCare’s offices. “With a good understanding of the ‘behind the scenes’ of the platform and its functionalities, we became self-reliant with the system very quickly.”

Eric Lipe concludes, “After the go-live in June 2020, my PACS administrator and I were discussing the experience, and realized there had only been two ‘major’ complaints from staff – both of which were internal communication issues. We agreed that clearly, despite the additional challenges, the project had been done right.”

With the new Enterprise Imaging solution up and running, the users, including the radiologists, quickly experienced concrete benefits. Dr. Gregory Cross, Diagnostic Radiologist, highlights how improvements in the new platform keep the radiologist workflow smooth and enhance efficiency.

“The voice recognition in Enterprise Imaging has taken a step forward, compared to the previous PACS. It is better at learning voice and speech patterns. So even at the end of a busy day, when our voices are tired and our speech may be slower, it still does a very good job, with few errors.”

The flexible text macros further accelerate the production of correct and complete reports, he explains. “Reports continue to get longer, both from increasing amounts of data (for example, all the measurements in an obstetric ultrasound), but also from hospital administration requirements (such as indicating the number of ccs of contrast medium used). There are many things repeated in report after report, as well. With AGFA Enterprise Imaging, it was easy to personalize the macros, to automate these repetitive parts of the report.”

Finally, the hanging protocols, combined with easy access to the dictation function, are another significant time-saver. “When I open a study, I don’t want to press three buttons to access the dictation function: I want to be able to just go. When you are reading 150 studies, shortcuts like these add up to a lot of time gained.”

With these tools and functionalities, he highlights, the radiologists can handle more patients, studies, and reports, more quickly. “That means clinicians and referring physicians get the information they need faster, and patients can begin treatment in a timely manner – which is key to patient care,” he adds.