How VNA Brings Value to Your Facility
All the discussion about vendor neutral archiving (VNA) has prompted many to seek
out a VNA solution of their own. The question is – is this a wise investment?
One way to look at it is like this: Dave loves to ride trains. Should he buy one of his own? It wouldn’t make fiscal sense for Dave to buy a train. He probably doesn’t know how to fix it if it breaks down, and the expense far outweighs what he could ever purchase in tickets for Amtrak rides, perhaps even over a lifetime. The fact is that VNA applications are available off-premise, in the cloud, and much more efficient to utilize in this method.
Another reason not to install your own VNA is because it is related to technology, and technological advancements occur rapidly. Within a year of buying one you’ll probably be yearning for the next model, yet your budget won’t allow for a new one for at least another five years, if not more.
When you go with a hosted VNA, you’re buying your train ticket and letting someone else do the conducting.
When you have image archiving and data management through the cloud, you’ll have your image files transmitted to a server provided by the archiving service vendor, which turns the file into a format that is vendor neutral. The images can be uploaded to a secure platform where medical professionals can analyze them. The best vendors are going to use data centers that offer disaster recovery, which means regardless of what is going on in your region, your images will be safe and available to you as long as you have Internet.
The best VNA providers are spending their time working out complex issues so you don’t have to. Most facilities don’t have the IT resources to integrate every medical image with the electronic medical records, or send those records to patients for imaging studies. And because integration with electronic medical records is becoming the norm, more and more outsourced archiving vendors are being called in to provide solutions.
All the new rules and regulations regarding electronic medical records are hitting rural facilities especially hard, mostly because these small providers don’t have the resources or the budget to connect to the technology that brings solutions to the table. However, there are vendors out there who cater to critical care facilities and clinics.
The best vendors are offering cloud-based solutions that are true VNA applications. They work with DICOM data and don’t get hung up with proprietary technology. OffSite Image Management, Inc. specializes in working with rural providers. Our industry-leading technology is top-quality, yet it doesn’t price clients out of the services they desperately require. What issues are you facing today with your medical imaging? Contact us today and we’ll walk you through the process of solving your problem.