Many facilities are turning toward cloud VNAs (vendor-neutral archiving) as a method of safely storing data. A cloud VNA takes the capabilities of a traditional vendor neutral archive further by providing a flexible framework over the Internet in which images can be transferred, viewed, and patient imaging and data can be joined together.
• Consumerism in health care drives patients to take control of their health records.
Physicians aren’t the only ones advocating for system-wide improvements. As patients take on more financial responsibility for their health care, they seek facilities and providers that can maximize the value of their dollars. Facilities must understand imaging consumer preferences, which frequently include items like an image-enabled patient portal. More than ever, patients are also advocating for improvements in health care, and demanding convenient locations, timely care and transparent prices. With few organizations offering these features, it’s a prime opportunity for a facility to differentiate itself.
However, few patient portals are image-enabled. Instead, patients are frequently given CDs of their images if requested. CDs are like pens and hair ties. They tend to break, get lost and be inefficient upon use. If a patient suffers from a more serious prognosis that requires a larger care team or multiple opinions, carrying imaging from place to place is exhausting. Through the cloud, facilities can empower patients with control over their own image data by eliminating CDs and image-enabling patient portals.
• Value-based care forces elimination of repeat imaging, broader interoperability.
Providers are getting paid more if they can figure out how to avoid unnecessary medical imaging procedures. MACRA (the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act) contains 22 performance criteria for radiology, which includes interventional radiology and radiation oncology measures that affect both patient facing and non-patient facing radiologists. The proposal encourages providers to make medical images available to external health care facilities, and encourages searching for medical images from those same facilities prior to ordering an imaging exam for a patient. These measures are currently focused on CT scans and will also serve to reduce patient exposure.
All providers will report under MIPS (the Merit-based Incentive Payment System) in 2017 with a few small exceptions. In light of the move to value-based care and other trends, including consolidation of facilities and heightened patient consumerism, many facilities have moved toward the cloud to streamline image management and reduce duplicate imaging.
About the author: Morris Panner is the CEO of Ambra Health, a medical data and image management cloud software company.Back to HCB News
