Contextual Inquiry
Institutions that deploy Centricity PACS tend to fall into one of two categories: large or teaching hospitals that have been using digital radiology for years, and smaller community hospitals that have made the transition more recently or are in the midst of transitioning from film to digital systems.
There are substantial differences in workflow between these two classes of institutions. In order to obtain an overarching view of PACS usage, it was important for the team to observe the use of PACS in both hospital environments. Leveraging GE’s connections, the CMU team arranged a contextual inquiry visit to both Meadville Medical Center (Meadville, PA), a small community hospital, and Baltimore VA Medical Center (Baltimore, MD), a large teaching hospial.
These visits yielded 11 extremely valuable contextual inquiry opportunities.
Over lunch, the team learned more about the current state of PACS with Dr. Siddiqui at one of the contextual inquiry site -- Baltimore, VA.