How Can Hospitals Ensure Medical Scans Are Always Seen?

The great benefit of having a cloud system to store medical scans is that it makes it possible for them to be seen widely by whoever needs to, even if the medics viewing them are isolated by time and place from where and when the scans were taken.

This should mean that those who need to see the scans always do, ensuring that the appropriate diagnosis can be made and the right treatment swiftly provided to patients.

However, the medical image sharing system needs to be set up in such a way as to ensure the scans are indeed seen by the right people. UK hospitals should avoid anything like a case in Australia, where a hospital failed to ensure that scans were subsequently seen by doctors.

ABC News Brisbane reported that up to 130 outpatients at Caboolture hospital were let down when doctors did not see their scan results on paper, while there was no system in place to flag up electronic copies.

As many as 38 affected patients are now at risk of major health consequences due to not getting the follow-up care they should have had in the year after the scans were taken. This included some former cancer patients undergoing their five-year follow-ups.

Metro North health chiefs have issued a reminder to all Queensland hospitals to have systems in place that ensure doctors see the scans.

Why Are Hospital Scans So Valuable?

Such failings are more significant because improvements in the technology the scans themselves use have made them much better at detecting medical problems, making it all the more valuable to have efficient systems to provide the electronic storage of scans to help in diagnostics.

Examples of new and better technology in the UK include those recently introduced by the United Lincolnshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, which has invested in new state-of-the-art CT and ultrasound scanners, Lincolnshire Live reported earlier this month. This should mean both faster and more accurate scans.

It is to be hoped that, unlike their colleagues down under, the systems are there to ensure that these benefits are backed up by the systems for storing and disseminating the data.