Diversified Radiology of Colorado – Case Study

Diversified Radiology of Colorado (DRC) provides 24/7 subspecialty image interpretation and intervention to patients and referring physicians. Services span multiple radiology specialties including breast imaging, interventional radiology, musculoskeletal radiology, neuroradiology, nuclear medicine, and pediatric radiology. They also provide teleradiology services, reading images from all over the US.

The majority DRC’s radiologists concentrate in a subspecialty within radiology. DRC has more than 60 radiologists and approximately 40 employees in administrative and support roles.

Several years ago, DRC began growing and serving larger numbers of radiologists and health systems around the nation. As its footprint expanded, workflows grew more complicated and the need for an enterprise solution became a top priority. Depending on the level of complexity, bringing on a new partner could take up to six months. “We needed to minimize the time it took to set up an interface,” said David Vazquez, Software Engineer for DRC. The group, which had previously been leaning on its PACS vendor to build interfaces, also wanted to control their own data without depending on a vendor.

In addition, DRC needed an interoperability platform that would allow them to make changes quickly when their partners required it, such during an RIS upgrade or an EMR migration. Vazquez explained, “Sometimes, hospitals we work with will change systems or do upgrades to their RIS systems without telling us until the next day when reports start failing, and they’ll say, ‘Oh, yeah. Can you change that?’”

Furthermore, DRC wanted a platform that would allow them to create workflows tailored to their partners’ needs and infrastructure. “We want radiologists, techs, and ED staff to feel like they’re part of our group,” Vazquez said.

DRC selected Corepoint Integration Engine. “We have a PACS system, dictation system, and a smart worklist, and Corepoint sits in front of all that,” Vazquez explained.

The group has nearly 100 interfaces today, and that number is growing quickly. Using Corepoint, DRC connects with many different systems such as homegrown systems and EMRs like Meditech and Cerner.

“We do a lot of complicated workflows where we build a lot of stuff in the engine and connect to external databases for reporting,” Vazquez explained, adding that, “One of my biggest ones right now is our worklist. I was able to map 450 pages of HL7 mappings — and counting — as the worklist gets bigger and we get more sites. The fact that the engine can handle that piece and we don’t have to rely on the vendor to do it, that was also a big win for us. It’s a very complicated project and having all those mappings in there and the engine still runs smooth — that’s huge for us.”

Since deploying Corepoint, DRC has drastically reduced the amount of time it takes to set up an interface with a new trading partner. Prior to partnering with Corepoint, this process would take anywhere from three to six months. Today, it could take as little as one day.

The process of creating a new interface is also much simpler with Corepoint. “Before, we had to get a manager, then a project manager, then his manager, then the other boss — and before you knew it, we would have 20 people on a call just to get an integration started,” said Vazquez. “And with Corepoint, it’s just us folks at Diversified dealing directly with the hospital, without going through somebody else to deal with that integration. We want to get out of the way and get patients taken care of, so this has been a tremendous help from Corepoint.”

DRC also cites Corepoint’s Alerts and Action Points as an added benefit to their operations. On several occasions, DRC was able to alert a partner about their network being down, even before hospital administrators were made aware. Vazquez explained, “We want to make sure that the connections are always 100% stable. And if they are down, is it on our side? Is it a VPN? Is it on our partners’ side?”

Corepoint helps DRC optimize internal workflows for their radiologists, which in turn allows them to read images faster, send results back to the referring physician or hospital, and reduce overall turnaround time.

Corepoint helps DRC optimize internal workflows for their radiologists, which in turn allows them to read images faster, send results back to the referring physician or hospital, and reduce overall turnaround time.

Every one of DRC’s customers has different requirements and abilities, and DRC must provide unique workflows for each one. “Corepoint provides us with enormous flexibility by providing options for us to use internally to meet those workflow challenges and provide our customers’ patients with exceptional care,” Vazquez said.

Vazquez emphasized that the ability to be proactive is a key to their success. “We can build different types of workflows that allow us to get projects going without spinning our wheels. When someone asks us, ‘Can you do this?’ the answer is ‘Yes, we can. The engine can do it.’”