Hospitals invest in single purpose hardware all the time - especially in the United States, where the PACS software we create is used. An example, EMC storage space dedicated only to store Radiology images. No other information is stored on there, and its only purpose is to store Radiology images. There's a narrow single purpose technology, which could be used to store other information, but is invested only to store radiology images. And its done at many hospitals that run PACS systems. And this isn't exactly new. Another single purpose technology that hospitals use: workstation terminals in OR/ER operating rooms that only run our web software to view radiology images of the patient and look at the radiologists report of the images. No other software, no other applications, just our web stuff, which is accessed through IE 7.
You asked me to prove you wrong - I have. Every hospital in the united states that i have upgraded or help installed a radiology PACS system, has in one way or another invested in some kind of single narrow purpose technology somewhere in its facility. Its easy to see where in their hospital workflow a device like the IPAD can fit in.
Here's another single, narrow purpose technology used at a hospital: Cardiology Monitoring Systems. The monitor the heart rate of the patient and alert when it falls below a preset level - and some of them, thats all they do. Hospitals can invest in a great system, and use maybe 4 out of 20 available options.
Hospitals that I've seen this sort of single, narrow purpose technology? HCA Florida, UHS Binghampton to name two. HCA Florida is a collection of 5 larger hospitals. They all use a single Radiology PACS system, and what does that system do? Store and show Radiology Images and store and show patient reports. Thats it. It doesn't do billing, it doesn't do dictation.
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Originally Posted by taylor192
Find me a hospital willing to invest in hardware that only supports reading reports from the web.
My company's software has web features too, I agree they can be made available on any platform. Yet is a hospital going to invest in a narrow single purpose technology? Past experience says 'no', yet you're free to prove me wrong. Good luck.
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