Running Header: INDIVIDUAL APPLICATION PAPER
Individual Application Paper
Gregory A. Cameron
University of Phoenix
CIS/564.4 - Information Management in Business
Professor: Arthur Ward
August 30, 2004
Individual Application Paper
Current System
At Henry Ford Hospital in Wyandotte, Michigan, the radiology department currently uses a standard way of processing films. Storage of the films is placed in a large dedicated room where they can be retrieved if needed. The films or radiographs are kept for years along with the reports in a side pocket of the film jackets. This housing facility has to be maintained at a certain temperature to avoid disintegration of the films from moisture damage and rot. These film jackets can weigh quit a lot after years of storage of films. Reports and film are sometimes lost from neglect, patients, doctors, and hospital personnel signing them out and not returning them to the department. There also has to be extra personnel on hand to assist people and do all the filing of the films and reports. This is a tedious task and hospitals have a large turnover in this field. This type of film and report archiving has always been a problem for hospitals and has been the way radiology departments have handled this up until now. It is amazing how much money is spent for a hospital on just housing and maintenance of patients films and reports. As the radiology supervisor, it was tasked to me to review the current system with other administrative personnel in the hospital, research and review other filing systems to advance technology and cost savings for the radiology department and the hospital. My first step was to get more educated on the current system and talk to our radiologists on what new system they have worked with before and get their input. We first found out that there were many issues to address and problems to correct before, during, and after we advance into a new system. Most of theses problems...