St. Joseph Hospital in Orange County, California, USA, opened its doors 81 years ago. The hospital has built a stellar reputation, particularly for cardiac and vascular services, performing the area’s first open heart surgery, coronary stenting, and angioplasty. St. Joseph Hospital is one of the few facilities in the USA to have implemented a revolutionary hybrid operating room, which allows physicians to transition seamlessly from minimally invasive to open-chest surgical procedures in the same room. Today, the 525-bed hospital completes more than 7,000 procedures per year, offering both adult and paediatric care. With this volume, integrating cardiology imaging and information technology became critical to provide faster, more seamless and more cost-effective care for patients. St. Joseph Hospital turned to Siemens for a solution. The answer? syngo^® Dynamics, Siemens’ cardiovascular imaging and information management solution.

Renee Mazeroll, RN, MSN, Executive Director, St. Joseph Hospital Cardiac and Vascular Center and Respiratory Services, says, “The goal was to create an integrated and efficient cardiology image management and reporting environment. The vision included providing physicians with the right tool to access multiple images and clinical information from different modalities, fully describe procedures, create a report, and then facilitate immediate distribution. It had to enable better workflow and better care.” According to Mazeroll, workflow was the biggest challenge. “We didn’t know what we thought we did,” she says. “You have to take the time and map out every single step of your workflow. If you assume anything, it will cause a problem.” With the help of a Siemens-facilitated three-day workshop, staff performed detailed situational analyses to make workflow as efficient as possible. The pre-work paid off.

Statistics reflect physician satisfaction and workflow efficiency.¹ One hundred percent of physicians are in compliance with the reporting procedures. Procedures start on time 90 percent of the time, and report turn-around-time (TAT) time is under 30 minutes for all cases. Says Mazeroll, “We have very little downtime, and are the market leaders with our imaging technology.