Investigating the satisfaction level of physicians in regards to implementing medical picture archiving and communication system (PACS)

Abstract

Background: User's satisfaction with PACS is considered as one of the important criteria for assessing success in using PACS. The objective of this study is to determine the level of satisfaction in PACS' users and also comparing its functional features with traditional film-based systems. Methods: This analytical study was conducted in 2017. Residents at three large university hospitals in Kerman city were included. We used self-administered questionnaire that was consisted of three parts include: demographic information, individuals' satisfaction, comparing features of the two digital and traditional imaging systems. Validity of this questionnaire was approved by specialists and its reliability was obtained as 86%. Data analysis was done with using descriptive statistics and after checking the normality of data, data compared with the spearman, the Mann Whitney U and the Kruskal-Wallis statistical tests. Results: The mean of the participants' ages 31.4 (±4.4) years old and 59% of the participants were females. Mean of overall physicians' satisfaction with PACS' score has no significant relationship with the variables of age (P=0.611), experience in using PACS (P=0.301), type of specialty (P=0.093), level of interpretation of images using PACS (P=0.762), however it did show a significant relationship with their computer skills (P=0.022). Conclusions: The mean for physicians' satisfaction with PACS was at a moderate to high level, yet there are still problems in successfully implementing these systems and establishing interoperability between them . PACS has not fully met all the demands of physicians and has not achieved its predetermined objectives such as all-access from different locations . BackgroundUsing modern technologies has led to the optimization of the quality and productivity of the health care systems [1, 2] and the Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS) is one of these modern technologies, and because of the high costs of radiology films and their storage, their retrieval problems, and problems with the distribution and display of traditional radiology film-based pictures [3,4], this technology has become the heart of medical imaging centers [5].The PACS as a module integrated with the radiology information system, not only is it a centralized source for all imaging data, yet it also creates and transfers digital radiology pictures and their PACS: Picture Archiving and Communication System PDA: Personal Digital Assistant Declarations Ethics approval and consent to participate This study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of Kashan University of Medical Sciences Research Council (Number: 1398.049) and conducted following the guidelines of the Declaration ofHelsinki. In accordance with the opinion of the above mentioned Ethics Committee and given the fact that no information about participants is provided in this paper, participants who participated in this study gave verbal consent to participate in this research. Consent for publicationNot applicable. system (PACS) on radiolo...