Significant savings in radiologic report turnaround time after implementation of a complete picture archiving and communication system (PACS)

One of the important advantages of the picture archiving and communication system (PACS) is the time saved in comparison with the conventional system. A group of 100 radiologic studies done in a conventional radiology departm ent is compared with another group of the same number done in a completely filmless PACS department to assess the difference in the radiologist report turnaround time. There was a statistically significant (P < .00001) decrea se in the median imaging-to-dictation time (IDT) of the PACS group (3 hours and 40 minutes) in comparison with the pre-PACS group (25 hours and 19 min utes). This can be attributed to the fact that PACS eliminates all the work load associated with hard copy films, thus, improving the department's effi ciency and decreasing the number of lost films. Copyright (C) 2000 by W.B. Saunders Company.