Trend to home PACS for radiology likely to continue

PARCA eNews – Aug. 9, 2020 – Radiologists will be shifting more of their workdays to reading from home or other remote locations after the COVID-19 crisis has passed, according to a new survey.

In an effort to examine effects of COVID-19 on radiology practices, a group of radiologists conducted a survey of nearly 290 practices representing a geographically diverse cross section of institutions. The results were published in mid-May in the Journal of the American College of Radiology.
Led by Mohammed Imran Quraishi, MD, assistant professor of radiology at the University of Tennessee, the researchers analyzed 174 responses. Quraishi et al. found an overall jump in the proportion of sites installing home workstations (65.2%) and switching normal daytime shifts to internal telerad (73.6%).

More than half of respondents (55.9%) felt the benefits from their experience were such that they plan to continue a similar workflow post-COVID. Specifically, 64.8% reported lower stress, and 96% found turnaround times to be improved or unchanged.

"In summary, our survey in the early COVID-19 pandemic period found that the majority of radiology practices have leveraged internal teleradiology for normal workday shifts and found sufficient benefit to consider continuing internal teleradiology after the pandemic passes, the authors wrote.

Sources: Journal of American College of Radiology and HealthImaging news.