This article is from page 11 of the 2012-05-22 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 11 JPG
ENNIS General Hospital’s radiology department, which faced closure 12 months ago, has won the prestigious Biomnis Healthcare Innovation Awards.
In a rags-to-riches story, the department, which had come under much criticism in the past, was recognised for its ‘Innovation in Quality of Service Delivery’.
The new x-ray service has cut result waiting times from 10 days to just 15 minutes in the case of emergencies, cut costs by 29 per cent and has seen more than 1,800 patients.
Hospital manager Frank Keane explained that when the x-ray department faced closure last year, as a consultant radiologist could not be recruited, the hospital team began to “gingerly” consider the option of introducing teleradiology technology.
In April 2011, Ennis General Hospital (EGH) partnered with Global Diagnostics (Global) and through the deployment of new and innovative teleradiology technology and new enabling processes positively transformed the operations, efficiency level and the standards of patient care and responsiveness at the Radiology Department.
The x-rays continued to be taken at the Ennis hospital but then they were immediately sent by telelink to one of the nine consultant radiologists available to read them.
One of the biggest successes within this pioneering system is the quick response of the department.
Now an emergency x-ray is read and reported on within 15 minutes, while an accident and emergency x-ray’s results are with the patient within 90 minutes.
Inpatient x-rays are read within three hours, while the hospital now guarantees that GP referred x-rays will be read and the results with the GP within 48 hours, although most are with the family doctor within 10 hours.
This compares more than favourably to an older system where patients were waiting an average of 10 days to have an x-ray read.
The team of radiology experts from Ireland, Northern Ireland, England and the UK include specialist paediatric and neurology radiologists, and bring added expertise to the hospital service.
Mr Keane said he was delighted with the win at the weekend, especially as the competition was so stiff. All of the other eight entries came from Ireland’s leading teaching hospitals.