On The Economic Role of RIS/PACS in Healthcare: An Empirical Study

The integration of electronic patient data records with digital images in PACS is the only way today to provide high-quality clinical services. Such integration enables clinicians to access both systems´ data reliably and consistently, as part of their regular working environment. This work extends the literature on RIS/PACS systems by focusing on changes in process dynamics as a source for ongoing firm-level performance improvements. A case discussion of via Health/Rochester General Hospital (RGH), a medical center that implemented RIS/PACS and subsequently experienced benefits through gains to its continuous improvement efforts, is examined in light of theorized impacts of such implementations on process dynamics. Analyses of longitudinal data suggest that performance along a key metric motivating the RIS/PACS initiative (i.e., clinical process lead-time) showed a significant improvement immediately after system deployment. The data further suggest that the system implementation gave rise to ongoing trend of performance improvement, in contrast to a stable performance trend prior to go-live. Finally, we present a general framework for capturing the actual tangible and intangible benefits of RIS/PACS implementation at a major hospital.