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A Balanced Evaluation Perspective: Picture Archiving and Communication System Impacts on Hospital Workflow

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Around the world, hospitals are faced with both budget and regulatory pressures, forcing them to re-examine the way clinical practice is carried out. Proposed technologies that provide workflow enhancements include Picture Archiving and Communications Systems (PACS); however, is PACS really effective in improving hospital workflow and the flow onto patient care, and how should this be evaluated? An acknowledged and successful approach for organizational evaluation is the Balanced Scorecard (BSC), providing the fundamental features for assessing organizations from various perspectives. In this research, the impact of PACS on the workflow of a large public hospital in Melbourne, Australia, is examined using an adapted version of the BSC. Empirically, this model was applied as an evaluation instrument through a series of in-depth interviews with PACS users. Results show that PACS did improve hospital workflow considerably and that the organizational alignment of PACS in hospitals is an important critical success factor.

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Acknowledgments

This work was performed as a master thesis and we are thankful to the hospital and all the interviewees for their cooperation and for making this research a success.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Information and Computing Sciences, Utrecht University, Centrumgebouw Noord, Padualaan 14, De Uithof, 3584 CH, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Rogier van de Wetering MSc, Ronald Batenburg Ph.D. & Johan Versendaal Ph.D.

  2. Department of Information Systems, University of Melbourne, Level 4, 111 Barry Street, Carlton, Melbourne, Victoria, 3010, Australia

    Rogier van de Wetering MSc, Reeva Lederman BA MIS & Lucy Firth Ph.D.

Authors
  1. Rogier van de Wetering MSc
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  2. Ronald Batenburg Ph.D.
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  3. Johan Versendaal Ph.D.
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  4. Reeva Lederman BA MIS
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  5. Lucy Firth Ph.D.
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ronald Batenburg Ph.D..

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van de Wetering, R., Batenburg, R., Versendaal, J. et al. A Balanced Evaluation Perspective: Picture Archiving and Communication System Impacts on Hospital Workflow. J Digit Imaging 19 (Suppl 1), 10–17 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10278-006-0628-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10278-006-0628-2

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