Balearic Islands connect to joint network

All public hospitals and around 80 connected Primary Health Centers in the Balearic Islands are now connected to a joint network, where the use of a master patient index is enabling Balearic doctors to access patient data and medical findings anytime.

This includes the use of GE Healthcare Web-Viewer, which enables them to retrieve digital data and radiological images wherever they are located.

A centralised multi media archive has been installed at the Son Llatzer Hospital at Palma de Mallorca. This offers radiology images, extracts of endoscopy treatments, dermatology patient images or data out of ophthalmology exams to all clinicians, based on GE’s Centricity PACS system.

Luis Alegre Latorre, director of Asistencial IB-Salut and Miguel Cabrer, e-health advisor to Asistencial, said: “ The success of this project demonstrates that you can streamline processes and save costs in healthcare with the help of modern IT solutions.”

Following implementation of GE Healthcare’s Centricity in Son Llatzer’s radiology department, the chief medical officers and the hospital management recognised the advantages of an enterprise wide digital image and data distribution in radiology and set about making it available to all the islands.

”Nobody needs to wait a long time anymore for radiological data. Via intranet, all images are available on demand, immediately, and no matter where you are in the building. The wish for a similar solution in dermatology came up fast,” said Cabrer.

He added: “So we began installations at the University Hospital Son Dureta, the Manacor Hospital as well as the Can Misses Clinics in Ibiza and one hospital in Menorca with standardised Centricity RIS/PACS solution. Soon after, we added a total of about 80 Primary Health Centers (PHCs) connected to the network.”

The Dermatology Institute in Son Llatzer has also established a teledermatology project, where a PHC dermatologist photographs a symptom, converts the data into a DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communication in Medicine) compatible format, and sends it digitally to the PACS, which is then transferred to a dermatologist.

One dermatologist, Dr. Carlos Dolz said: “Thanks to the multi-media PACS, images and medical records are available ubiquitous. This is the decisive advantage of a digital workflow.”

Campuzano Casasayas, a director at one of the hospitals, added: “Modern IT solutions are a key factor for the success of a healthcare enterprise. IT improves the whole cycle of care a patient goes through during his stay in the hospital and thus significantly helps to save costs and time.”