Better patient care
NORTHWEST IMAGESHARE enables better physician access to medical images throughout the Kitsap County region, resulting in more immediate and higher-quality care for patients. The program ensures that radiology studies acquired at any participating facility will be available for digital review at patients’ Northwest ImageShare providers. When changing physicians or visiting specialists, patients will no longer need to request their original studies on CD or bring discs with them to appointments; should a patient enter the hospital through the emergency department at Harrison Medical Center, his or her entire imaging history will be available to the treating physician.
The ultimate goal of Northwest ImageShare is better patient care and shorter times spent in the Emergency Department; without this community healthcare program, patients in both emergent and non-emergent situations could wind up undergoing duplicative imaging studies, resulting in unnecessary costs and additional radiation exposure. With Northwest ImageShare in place, patients’ images move with them throughout the system—regardless of where they go.
Northwest ImageShare at work for patients
A long-distance runner with painful, persistent knee pain ends up in the Emergency Department of Harrison Medical Center. Three days before, she’d had a scan of her knee done at The Doctors Clinic as part of a routine evaluation. Her emergency physician easily accesses her prior images and tells her she likely has patellofemoral pain, often referred to as “runners’ knee.” From the patient’s perspective, this is a simple scenario, but imagine if Harrison Medical Center and The Doctors Clinic weren’t involved in Northwest ImageShare. That long-distance runner just might need another scan. Most insurance plans likely would reject it as a duplicative test, resulting in a higher cost to her; the exam would take needed time out of her day; and she would be exposed to additional, and unnecessary, radiation levels. Fortunately, she lives in a community where competing providers have come together to make patient care their first priority.
