PACS downtime drill: testing departmental workflow with an enterprise imaging viewer and archive

In today's workflow, radiologists rely on the picture archiving and communication system (PACS) to view images. Unplanned downtime causes significant delays in patient care and lengthy downtimes can have lasting effects on patient care and end-user confidence. The purpose of this manuscript is to describe the planning and implementation of a disaster drill where the departmental PACS was taken off-line and the hospital enterprise viewer was used for departmental image interpretation.

Automated summary

This manuscript describes the planning and implementation of a disaster drill where the departmental PACS was taken offline and the hospital enterprise viewer was used for image interpretation. Through this drill, the impact of downtime on patient care and end-user confidence can be understood.