HAYWARD, CA – St. Rose Hospital, in Hayward, Calif., is implementing a new data management solution in an effort to improve report turnaround for physicians and patients in its cardiovascular department.

Hospital officials said physicians should get faster access to echocardiogram and EKG reports through Atlanta-based McKesson’s Horizon Cardiology CVIS.

"This system gives me instant access to the highest-quality digital images 24 hours a day," said Pradeep Kumar,  chief of cardiology at St. Rose Hospital. "This is significant because faster treatment time equates to positive results and overall improvement in quality of care."

In 2008, the hospital deployed a new picture archiving and communications system, which clinical staff used to acquire, distribute and store clinical images and report on a daily basis. As these two systems become integrated, officials said, physicians will be able to access stored clinical reports and images at the point of care.

The implementation was approached from a phase-based perspective, beginning with the cardiac cath lab and  echocardiography department for image storage and reporting, said officials. Next for deployment was non-invasive cardiology, EKG management and Web-based reporting. During each phase, the CVIS was integrated with the hospital’s existing health information systems to automate order and report sharing between platforms.

"We want to make our patients aware of how information technology can further improve safety and the quality of care," said Michael Mahoney, president and chief executive officer of St. Rose Hospital. "By automating every aspect of the workflow process, we feel we will be able to better accommodate our patients’ increased needs for emergent and critical care services."