Sainte-Justine Hospital - Canada

Increased Physician and Transcriptionist Efficiency

At the end of 1999, 50 physicians in Radiology, Nuclear Medicine, Pathology and Psychiatry were able to dictate their reports from their respective PCs thanks to the implementation of DigiDictate-PC. For confidentiality purposes, sixteen voice ports (DigiScribe-XL) were also installed in Radiology and Nuclear Medicine enabling dictation and playback to take place from any workstation.

In 2003, instant access to the voice files was given to 25 Transcriptionists, all connected to the central dictation server through the network. In early 2003, with the implementation of MedRite-XL and ADT interfaces, Transcriptionists were able to take advantage of unsurpassed productivity tools and highly customizable data transmission, fax and printing functions.

A Shared Vision

When the dictation system was purchased in 1999, the computer experts at Sainte-Justine hospital paid particular attention to the subjacent technology: while being evolutive, the system's architecture should be open enough to seamlessly integrate with any other exiting or eventual medical system.

Integration to Medical Imaging Technologies

In 2001, bidirectional integration was established between Crescendo systems and Synapse PAC's from Fuji, enabling the exchange of messages, statuses and other vital information between both entities. Physicians were thereby able to dictate from the Synapse worklist directly, without having to run the Crescendo application separately. "Thanks to the intelligent synergy between Crescendo, Radimage and Fuji, we were able to reduce the Radiology examination process from 24 hours to just a few minutes while enabling all relevant professional caregivers to access the image simultaneously." [Source: Press kit - September 26 th, 2001 - Conference on the integration of imaging technologies]

Integration to the "Mère-Enfant" Network

In 2003, Crescendo systems are integrated to the Arc-en-ciel central data repository of the "Mère-Enfant" network, the first electronic patient record sharing project in its kind in the province of Quebec. This network allows three of Quebec's hospitals and five private clinics to share their medical records within one unique server, thereby facilitating the follow-up process of patients transferred from one facility to another.

Flexible, Secure and Cost Effective Documentation Management

In 1997, Sainte-Justine Hospital wanted to replace its current dictation and transcription system, the latter being unable to support the complexity of the documentation workflow of the Radiology, Pathology and Psychiatry departments. Even though the entire document creation process had to be rethought, each department, nevertheless, wanted to maintain a certain level of autonomy: the new system should be integrated as a single system that would allow five different departments to individually manage their respective medical reports. Last but not least, the new system should be based on a wide architecture to allow for future dictation modules to be added without impacting the exiting applications or workflow.