Ms. PACS: When you think of Valentine’s Day, you might think – it's another Hallmark holiday and I better buy another expensive gift if I want to stay out of the doghouse. Or, for the more sentimental ones, you might see it as an opportunity to rediscover the love you once shared with your mate. But lighting up that old spark is not an easy trick.
If your 'romancing' moves are a little rusty, you can always refer to the MSN Top 10 List of Valentine’s Day Gifts for suggestions. The list has some original ideas - such as a personalized acrylic wine stopper to celebrate your eternal love, a ‘bring on the bubbles’ champagne set for clean fun, and on that note how about the battery-operated massage wand to relieve all the stress you experienced trying to come up with something original. PACSman, I’m sure this will be your favorite - number three on the gift list was a good old-fashioned boardgame – “Lust! The Passionate Game for Two,” which comes with over 30,000 tantalizing endings for more of romantic and physical intimacy. Just $19.99!
While you are getting into the spirit, you can do the same with your PACS vendor, who you haven’t seen since you signed the contract. How can you rekindle that old flame? Since you're at a loss, PACSman, I’m going to give you 10 reasons to fall in love with your PACS vendor all over again.
First, look back to the where it all started. Remember the first time you met your PACS vendor, the eager handshake and fervent, “Glad to meet you!” stirred up a sense of optimism and excitement. You thought, “Maybe this is the guy who can really solve our data management problems.” Like a lot of the PACS vendors, he told you this PACS would meet your expectations and workflow requirements, it was standards based and Web-based, supported multifeatured, technologist QC applications, plus a combined virtual enterprise directory and a unified single-patient folder. But what really won you over was the IT support, programs and manpower to help you with workflow redesign and technology adoption in the referral community.
Three months later, after you initiated the installation of your new PACS, there are still interfacing and log-on issues. Everyday it seems like a physician or tech comes across a new glitch and with every tweak to your new PACS infrastructure comes another invoice. Now you’re going over budget and your neck is on line. “I thought he said it would be seamless!” Well, too late. You’re stuck. And now that friendly and helpful vendor guy is too busy drumming up new business elsewhere to even return your calls. What can you do?
It’s time to make this guy accountable. But remember, you want to get your needs met, so even though you want to tell him off, you need to find a win-win – in other words, find a way to fall in love with your PACS vendor all over again.
Go back to where it all started. You had a list of concise requirements and requests concerning the kind of support you would get, which you and your vendor agreed upon - sort of like taking vows. Call your vendor in, meet him face-to-face and go back over the list of agreed requirements. If he tries to make excuses, don’t be too quick to threaten him with a breach of contract because you’re still stuck with the system and without his help you will be royally screwed.
Just think of those 10 reasons to make you fall in love with your PACS vendor all over again. Set deadlines for meeting each item, and once your PACS vendor completes the following, you'll feel the pitter patter in your heart.
Those items include:
1. integrating all key components - RIS, PACS, and Speech workflow, document management, mammography tracking, billing and practice analysis
2. eliminating latency issues in transferring data between RIS/PACS/Speech systems
3. streamlining the interface deployment process, including managing vendor communication, document preparation, interface testing and organizing vendor work schedules.
4. providing access to relevant information and voice and image management tools with a single sign-on and integrated worklist and user interface.
5. giving you automatic access to an integrated worklist to view relevant current or prior clinical information through the native, bi-directional integration built into the RIS/PACS.
6. enabling all data to be entered once and flows through real-time across all systems.
7. improving data integrity by through automatic reconciliation of orders and studies.
8. reducing installation and user training time.
9. eliminating the need to maintain multiple, separate workstations.
10. enhancing communication and support with a single point-of-contact and
reduces vendor conflicts.
Ah, now that is love.
PACSman: I never did understand why it’s always the guys who need to stay out of the doghouse on St. Valentine’s Day and never the woman. Did you ever look at the Valentine’s Day ads? A man needs to go to stores where "every kiss begins with K" and spend hundreds of dollars on her, while she gets away with picking up a sample vial of cologne at Vickies for free, pulling a silk gown that some man no doubt bought her out of the drawer and voila- instant “gift.” And they say life is fair? Trust me, it isn’t…As for 30,000 tantalizing endings, I’d be happy with one- as long as its happy - and I can save $19.99 to go towards satisfying my lover in other ways. After all, if I can’t make whoopie like a jack rabbit any more the least I can do is get a decent substitute for just a few bucks more……
There may be 50 ways to leave your lover and 10 ways to fall in love with your vendor, but how about making the vendor fall in love with you the buyer all over again or for that matter your man with you again? Let’s start with the basics.
Don’t put on the green silk gown and perfume until you are serious about closing the deal. All too often a buyer will work out a killer deal, negotiate contract terms and conditions, and the like and then either invariably delay the deal or back out of it entirely in the 11th hour. That’s like getting some incredibly inviting ear nibbles and being taken by the hand into the bedroom for what seems to be the inevitable and then waiting while your love interest takes off her makeup, showers, dries off, blow dries her hair, rubs moisturizer all over herself, spritzes herself with cologne, puts on her gown, brushes her hair, brushes and flosses her teeth, rinses with mouthwash and 45 minutes later reenters the bedroom with a flourishing “I’m ready now, lover!!” only to be met with the sounds of silence…or worse yet, snoring….True, some things may be worth waiting for but for how long? If you are going to do the deal then by God do it. If it’s going to take a while then let someone know that so they can plan accordingly…
One also needs to come in with realistic expectations. Sure the green silk gown is a good sign ….but when it’s 11:45 p.m. and you’ve been up since 5 that morning you need to be realistic in your expectations. While the Eagles might be singing “All Night Long” that just isn’t a realistic expectation, at least at my age it’s not…More like “Life in the Fast Lane,” at least at that hour. The same hold true with PACS vendors. We need to be realistic in the time it takes to do the implementation, the interfaces, customizing the hanging protocols, and other related tasks. This typically takes days if not weeks, not hours. Of course you need to make sure that you are up to the customization required- and put aside enough time to do this as well. Things also need to work as you expect them to as well, and not just hoping for the best or assuming it does what you want it to…which leads us to the next point- know what you want and what you are willing to settle for as well, both in love and PACS.
In love and in PACS it’s never 50/50. Sometimes the vendor provides the majority of effort, sometimes the vendor, but in the end it should balance out to each party providing a fairly equal amount of effort. In love or PACS the end result is indeed the end result, but how you get there can either be very straightforward or take a long and convoluted path. Usually in the wee hours of the evening or early a.m. with limited time you want to take the straight and narrow path, but when it’s a larger implementation you may want to make sure you budget appropriate time to do it slowly and deliberately. And so, too, it goes with both PACS and in love. Deadlines need to be set but they need to be somewhat flexible and realistic as well, Rush it and you have two people who aren’t very satisfied; take too much time and the same holds true. You need to know what you want and find the right mix to get there…
Lastly, in the Bible there is a familiar verse that starts out "Love is patient; love is kind and envies no one. Love is never boastful, nor conceited, nor rude; never selfish, not quick to take offense. There is nothing love cannot face; there is no limit to its faith,
its hope, and endurance. In a word, there are three things that last forever: faith, hope, and love; but the greatest of them all is love." (1 Corinthians 13:4). Now I’m not sure I want to fall in love again with my PACS vendor as Ms. PACS suggests, and am just exploring that whole “intensely liking” someone phase after being divorced over 6 years now. That said, I do know a little patience and kindness goes a long way towards rekindling the fires and even creating the desire that both parties want and need to at least keep the embers burning if not create an all out roaring fire… Is that love? Heck, were it not for biblical admonitions to the contrary I’d settle just for a little lust…and take whatever I can get…
It’s a full moon out as I write this and love is in the air…so forget about what Ms PACS says, grab your favorite PACS vendor (or someone close to you who doesn’t mind being grabbed) and sing after me the TRUE meaning of amore:
When the moon hits you eye like a big pizza pie
That's amore
When the world seems to shine like you've had too much wine
That's amore
Bells will ring ting-a-ling-a-ling, ting-a-ling-a-ling
And you'll sing "Vita bella"
Hearts will play tippy-tippy-tay, tippy-tippy-tay
Like a gay tarantella
When the stars make you drool just like a pasta fagiole
That's amore
When you dance down the street with a cloud at your feet
You're in love
When you walk down in a dream but you know you're not
Dreaming signore
Scuzza me, but you see, back in old Napoli
That's amore…..
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