Question: Why is there sometimes a delay between completion of an imaging investigation or intervention ordered in Connect Care and availability of associated images for viewing in Connect Care?
Context: Diagnostic images are not instantly available to the ordering provider when an imaging exam is marked complete in Connect Care by a Technologist. The imaging workflow involves a number of steps that may not be apparent to all users:
- A Technologist facilitating the intervention or investigation completes their documentation in Connect Care.
- "Picture Archive and Communications System" (PACS) receives an "End Exam" message from Connect Care and generates a unique identifier for the exam.
- The identifier initializes archiving of the diagnostic images and data to a storage system ("Impax Data Center", IDC).
- IDC generates a message when all of the images for that diagnostic imaging procedure have been received, which then makes the images available to be viewed in Connect Care and Netcare.
Answer: A number of steps occur behind the scenes once an imaging investigation or intervention is marked complete in Connect Care by the performing Technologist. These steps are usually fast but can trigger a perceptible delay when a diagnostic imaging procedure generates many images, large images or image transfers when network traffic is high. These variables are outside of the control of the Technologist.
If diagnostic images are taking longer than expected to appear for clinical use, or if the images are critical to provide urgent patient care, please call the IT Service Desk (1-877-311-4300) to report a high priority ticket, or email Imaging Apps Support (ImagingAppsSupport@ahs.ca; available Monday–Friday, 07:45–16:00). In critical situations, the images can be viewed in the imaging department if there is an unexpected delay with image transmission to Connect Care.