Neuroradiology workstation reading in an inter-hospital environment: a nineteen month study

Two workstations (WS) each with two, 2500 line display monitors were installed in the in-patient and the out-patient neuroradiology reading areas for inter-hospital workstation readings. These WSs are part of the display component of a hospital-integrated picture archiving and communication system (PACS). Direct digital neuro images from 10 CT and MR scanners located at various buildings from two medical centers are first transmitted to the PACS database and then distributed to these two WSs automatically. This paper attempts to answer two questions. First, do the WSs facilitate neuroradiology operation? Second, does it cost less for preparing WS reading than that for the traditional film reading? Two parameters, the "time required before images become available for reading after the examination" and a "workstation utilization index" were derived as a means for answering these two questions. Nineteen months of clinical data were collected and analyzed. The results demonstrate that the workstation utilization index goes up from 40% in September 1994 when the WS was first introduced to over 80% in March 1996. This upward trend substantiates the hypothesis that these WSs do facilitate the neuroradiology operation. The derived results also exhibit that it costs much less to prepare images for WS reading than for film reading. Other indirect results derived from this study including the WS utilization hours, WS functions used, and the time duration of each WS session are also presented.