PACS up and running in Haiti!

A Guest Entry from Jeffrey Henry, Medweb Engineer in Haiti (Monday, February 15, 2010)

The Univ. of Miami Medishare hospital has been running X-rays non-stop. I was able to get a view station set-up next the X-ray station in the adult tent. A local arrived who was trained in the machine and can take the X-rays and scan in the cartridges. The traffic here at the hospital has picked up. We are full; the massive rain last night caused schools to collapse and some people came in with major issues.

I have to say, the trip thru town was atrocious; the city is non-stop rubble with a lot of people living in tents made of bed sheets. The international response is everywhere, but at the same time, seemingly minimal. Every country with the capability to do so has sent something, but nothing comes close to the US presence.

I also got some great intel on how the medical efforts are going and where the needs are most vital and how this Medweb server in particular could be used most efficiently.

When I got back to the Miami Medishare facility, one of my laptops had been liberated and hooked up to a projector in the kids' tent to show a French version of Peter Pan. You just can't get "mad" though - these poor kids just tug at your heart and if a little bit of relief in a movie that tells them it's ok to not have to grow up overnight - then that's a part of why we are here, too. There is still another view station in this room. I will leave my tough book here with a user account for Medweb viewing and I will give the password to the docs who need it.

Tonight my to-do list is to send 37 studies from X-ray to PACS so they can compare priors and secure view station, setup near X-ray machine so the doctors can read NEAR the X-ray machine for faster reads.

As I was writing, I was interrupted by a doc who needed to read. Patient had a femur fracture that they patched up and put a cast on and were ready to discharge. They were very happy.