The evaluation of picture archiving and communication system (PACS) in healthcare organizations

PACS (Picture Archiving and Communication System) is a system which has the radiological images taken by the modalities stored, displayed and distributed digitally. The purpose of this research is to examine the pros and cons of the use of PACS in an organization, to observe its financial effects, to help how the project of PACS should be managed and to give an idea about how long the return on investment will take place. In order to be able to reach its purpose, both qualitative and retrospective research methods were used. The research was done in a university hospital which uses PACS inAnkara. In-depth interview method was applied to the users of the system. The questions were prepared beforehand and a data collection tool was formed. These questions were asked to the users of the system using semi-structured interview technique. Content analysis method was used in order to interpret the data collected via interviews and financial analysis was done to evaluate the numeric data. According to the research results, PACS, which all of the users in hospital have a positive approach to, is a system that increases the work efficiency and performance, decreases the costs of the healthcare organizations by decreasing the use of films and increases the profit margin causing return on investment. Together with PACS, it has been observed that the number of films bought and used in 2011 - 2012 and the cost were decreased and the return on investment is expected to be realized in two years.Key words: PACS, digital hospital, filmless radiology