Naval Medical Center Portsmouth Picture Archiving Communication System (PACS) Support Service Team won the inaugural Radiology Team of the Year Award for 2014, April 30.

The radiology specialty leader for Navy Medicine, Cmdr. John York, created the Navy Radiology Specialty Leader Awards to recognizes teleradiology excellence.

The NMCP team was selected via open competition among all Navy Radiology across a variety of categories.

"I know for a fact that no other PACS team could have done what this group has done with teleradiology in Navy Medicine East and also connecting us with operational forces, in particular, Expeditionary Medical Facility - Djibouti," York said.

Through teleradiology, the team supports many of the 18 hospitals and clinics within Navy Medicine East's area of responsibility, for which NMCP is the flagship medical center. The region, from Texas to Bahrain, spans 10 time zones.

The PACS team consists of Christopher Tucker, John Gragg, Randy Hays, Bryan Brakeman, Anna Castillo-Lora, Denise Evans, Christina Ellis, Tim Fraser, Elizabeth Anita English and Lt. Cmdr. Matt Beery.

"Over the last year, this team has developed the teleradiology network for all of Navy Medicine East," said Beery, the PACS administrator. "They have connected to each sites' PACS and established a standardized workflow for the NMCP radiologists and the sites sending the studies. This process allows NMCP radiologists to pull studies, conduct the reads, and then submit the report back to the site."

NMCP supports the full gamut of studies from X-rays to magnetic resonance imaging, which were previously read by civilian contractors at night. NMCP's teleradiology network has successfully eliminated the contracts at each facility that supported night reads, with an annual cost reduction of $550,000.

PACS is composed of several different systems that make teleradiology possible.

"Our system DINPACS (Digital Imaging Network Picture Archiving Communication System) includes all of the subsystems that radiologists use to view, interpret, store and share X-rays," said Gragg, who is the senior PACS network engineer.

The teams' skills have not only established teleradiology connections to many of the hospitals and clinics within NME, but they have also helped troubleshoot issues with Army and Air Force commands, Navy Medicine West hospitals and clinics, and remote locations such as Djibouti.

"When remote sites need assistance establishing or troubleshooting connectivity with NMCP's PACS, our team will hold a conference call with the remote site's PACS team and, if needed, we will remote into their system and help configure or troubleshoot their teleradiology connection to NMCP," said Tucker, the PACS system manager.

This support was notably apparent at Camp Lemonier in Djibouti. The NMCP team connected to Djibouti's PACS, configured their teleradiology connection to NMCP, created a unique teleradiology workflow and ensured all reports were returned to Camp Lemonier, all within a short-fused deadline. This is merely one example of this team providing the best in patient care around the globe.

In addition to making diagnostic imaging reports readily available, the team has also concentrated on NMCP's radiographic image quality.

"They've implemented process improvements to enhance image quality for patient safety and ultimately for better patient care," Beery said. "The implemented processes track the quality of images and focuses improvement efforts."

Image quality determines how well a radiologist can interpret pathology.

"Our quality control program helps newer techs, as well as seasoned techs, determine what an optimum image should look like," Tucker said. "The training material our team produces reinforces and expands the techs existing knowledge, but also focuses on our radiologists specific needs.

"As a consequence, the number of images that are rejected by techs at the imaging console has declined significantly, which is further evidence that the program is working," Tucker said. "This means that our patients are receiving lower doses of radiation, and our radiologists are better equipped to interpret pathology. Ultimately, the patient receives a higher quality service."

Within the last six months, through training and organizational behavior modifications, radiology's image rejection rate has decreased from 18 percent to less than 10 percent, with the goal of reaching eight percent.

Beery added that beyond the work that has been done to earn the award, the team's daily customer service is outstanding. They are always willing to help beyond expectations.

"They truly earned the award," Beery said. "They have been trailblazers in the Navy PACS world, and sought out by their counterparts around the Navy."

For more news from Naval Medical Center Portsmouth, visit www.navy.mil/local/NMCP/.