South Canterbury rolls out regional radiology eOrders

NEWS

Four of five districts in Te Waipounamu, South Island are using the same electronic ordering system for radiology following a recent go-live at South Canterbury.

Te Whatu Ora South Canterbury has implemented the eRad electronic ordering for radiology and results sign-off module from Eclair, which is already used in Canterbury, the West Coast and Nelson Marlborough districts.

These four districts already use a regional radiology information system (RIS) and picture archive communication system (PACS).

Nathan Taylor, radiology services manager at Te Whatu Ora South Canterbury, says the new system allows South Canterbury to align its radiology workflows with the region, creating more efficient and coordinated practices.

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“Now that we are using e-Ordering for radiology, orders arrive instantly, and registration of the referral is initiated through integration with the RIS. Gone are the days of relying on paper referrals that could get lost in the mail,” he says.

Taylor says the transition from paper-based processes to electronic ordering means faster processing of procedures, reducing result turnaround times and enabling quicker patient diagnosis, as well as preventing the duplication of patient procedures.

Radiology results from the four districts are sent to the South Island regional clinical data repository for sign-off and acceptance. TestSafe South holds all South Island lab and radiology results, and other clinical documents.

The Eclair system interfaces with the region’s shared PACS, allowing healthcare professionals to access radiology images directly within reports.

“Clinicians at Timaru Hospital will see radiology reports in their Eclair dashboard alongside laboratory reports. They will no longer need to manually search by patient in Health Connect South or wait for the printed report,” Taylor explained.

“Importantly, an audit captures when results are viewed and signed off, and clinicians can easily reassign them, which was not possible with the previous paper-based sign-off process.”

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