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Spiritwood and District Health Complex goes high-tech

May 15, 2013 | 6:08 AM

A new Radiology Information System (RIS) and Picture Archiving Communication System (PACS) were unveiled at the Spiritwood and District Health Complex on Tuesday.

John Piggott, vice-president of operations for the Prince Albert Parkland Health Region was on hand to help celebrate the launch.

“What we’re doing is converting from an old film system of X-ray work … [to a] new system that is filmless, which relies obviously on digital computer technology, so that as soon as the technologist performs the X-ray they send it through the computer system,” Piggott explained.

On the old film system, X-rays would have to be shipped from the health complex to places like Prince Albert or Saskatoon to be assessed by a radiologist and results sent back. This could take up to a few days, but on the new system the X-rays will be sent digitally with results back as early as the same day.

This new RIS/PACS system was brought to fruition thanks to one large donation to the Spiritwood Health Complex Foundation back in August 2010. (http://www.panow.com/node/90125)

“The money is donated to the Spiritwood Foundation. There was a very, very generation donation from a fellow Spiritwood area farmer, Frank Koska, and he donated over $500,000 in his estate and basically the foundation has chosen to spend $93,207 to help the health region to purchase the new RIS/PACS system,” Piggott said.

“He was passionate about the support of the Spirtwood and District Health Complex and he left it specifically for improvements or equipment that the community needed.”

Piggott said the new technology will benefit patients who will receive faster care, as well as the technicians who can utilize it.

“It becomes the standard of care going ahead and basically you get a high quality diagnostic image exam and the turnaround time is quite quick, so I think both those things are going to be very important for the patients,” he said.

“We certainly are looking forward to providing this level of service with this RIS/PACS system for years to come.”

The RIS is used within the Medical Imaging Department to provide better patient scheduling, exam management and results reporting. PACS is a secure provincial electron image archive for the storage, retrieval and display of digital diagnostic images including general X-rays, ultrasounds, Computerized Tomography and mammography.

sstone@panow.com

On Twitter: @sarahstone84