Overall PACS has provided a new and innovative method for physicians to utilize medical imaging to their highest potential.
COLLIDE or COINCIDE
While the PACS system is undeniably important in the world of medical care because of the advantages that it provides. It creates a speedy, accurate and instant result to tests which doctors can pull up at their desk and view almost as soon as the procedure is over with. With the new abilities the system allows it has revolutionized the medical imaging field as well as many aspects of total health care.
With the decision to implement HIPAA laws the government placed mandates on health care professionals that threatened to stretch the very fabric of its boundaries. Many areas of health care had to make some significant changes in order to comply with the HIPAA regulations. The field of medical imaging was revolutionized with the implementation of PACS however, there was concern about the ability to comply with HIPAA while still using PACS to its fullest advantage.
Experts agree that only using PACS some of the time and still depending on paper and film would greatly reduce the effectiveness of PACS on productivity and health care ability in the area of medical imaging.
One of the very benefits of PACS threatens the core process of HIPAA. PACS is a field wide ability to produce medical imaging results to physicians faster than ever before in history. It allows the instant transmission of data to parties at the other end of the connection (Gater, 2004).
HIPAA provides mandates that protect the identity and many other aspects of a health care consumers life with regards to their medical needs.
On the surface it would appear that HIPAA and PACS are in direct opposition of each other with regards to privacy and security.
And if it could be found that HIPAA and PACS collide in their ability to deliver services with security then legally PACS would have to be modified or dismantled all together which would put the field of medical imaging back many years.
While there are concerns about PACS and its ability to maintain the health privacy and security standards set up by the government with HIPAA it is possible for measures to be taken that will insure PACS can continue being used while at the same time maintaining compliance with HIPAA.
The biggest concern when it comes to the use of PACS with regard to the compliance with HIPAA is the security and privacy issue. Those who are concerned believe that the instant transmission of data over a computer connection presents a risk that information will be provided to those who have not been given permission to access the information by the consumer. This leads to concerns of liability for the health care providers and anyone who was involved with the transmission of that information.
If PACS had not become an accepted standard of medical imaging delivery than there would be little concern about the ability to comply with HIPAA standards of laws as the entire medical imaging report and test result would be confined to one area. The patient would have an authorize the sharing of that information with certain entities and provide the name and address of those who would be allowed to see the results. The medical imaging department would then send by courier the results that had been released and they would be signed for at the receiving physician's office.
This would be a safe guarded method that would insure that HIPAA laws were being complied with. However, in light of PACS and the revolutionized abilities that it has provided to the medical community, few if any health care workers would volunteer to give it up to go back to the pervious methods of waiting for days to have results delivered to them through a courier or the mail.
With the advances that PACS has provided for the medical imaging field as well as those that depend on the field for their medical needs it would be a significant disservice to society to stop its use at this point in history. Instead it is important to maintain its use and continued improvement as technology avails itself to such advantage.
The laws of HIPAA are federally mandated therefore PACS is bound by them as well as anyone who uses the PACS system for the storage, retrieval and transmission of medical imaging procedures that have been performed on patients.
When one examines the true scope and depth of the PACS system however one will see that it is indeed a system that coincides...
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