El Camino picks up new computer gear El Camino picks up new computer gear (September 16, 2005)

By Katie Vaughn

The El Camino Hospital board voted unanimously at its Sept. 7 meeting to purchase a pair of information and computer systems that will move the hospital toward a more streamlined, film-free environment.

The radiology information system and picture archive computer system, referred to as RIS/PACS, will allow the hospital to store and transmit digital images such as MRI and CT scans to various hospital locations and physicians' offices. The system is believed to streamline the use of images, and is an increasingly common practice for hospitals, said Mark Zielazinski, El Camino's chief information officer.

Furthermore, he said, the technology is a necessary step, as the new hospital will contain no film room. Old films will be stored off-site and digitized and added to the hospital's system at some point. Zielazinski added that the systems are a prerequisite for robotic surgery, a method he called the future of the field.

Board chairman Edward Bough called the upgrade "incredibly advantageous" for the hospital. "It's the wave of the future," he said.

"This has always been in our long-term plan," board member Wesley Alles added.

The total cost of purchasing and installing the systems and training employees to use them will not exceed $2 million, the amount budgeted for the upgrade this fiscal year.

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