1. Pre-acquisition > 2. Acquisition > 3. Reporting > 4. Results distribution
The acquisition phase begins when the patient arrives at the hospital for the study, and includes when the technologist “acquires” the study images. It ends when the study is sent to the PACS.
4. Patient arrives at the hospital
On the day of his study, the patient arrives at the hospital admitting desk. The receptionist takes the patient's information and enters it into the Hospital Information System (HIS) to obtain a unique identifier for that patient.
5. Patient arrives at the radiology department
The patient proceeds to the radiology department and reports to reception. The receptionist registers the patient into the Radiology Information System (RIS). The order for the patient is filled and is assigned a unique identifier to identify that study. The arrival status of the patient signifies to the technologist that the patient is in the waiting room and is ready to be imaged.
6. Technologist takes the x-ray
When the patient arrives at the modality for his study, the technologist requests a worklist that contains the patient information and the details of the study to be performed. In this case, the patient needs an x-ray of his chest. The technologist takes the x-ray at the modality.
7. Technologist does a quality check
The technologist performs a quality check on the images, then forwards them to the PACS for storage.
8. Images sent to PACS.
The PACS receives the images. The demographic patient and study information maybe verified against the HIS/RIS to ensure that the information is correct prior to storage.
1. Pre-acquisition > 2. Acquisition > 3. Reporting > 4. Results distribution