How UC Health Saved $300K Annually While Improving Patient Engagement

The Challenge

Like many health systems, UC Health was using CDs to share imaging records with patients & providers due network limitations of their legacy image exchange solution. They were looking to achieve a few important goals:

• Generate savings and redirect staff to critical tasks by eliminating CDs
• Improve the patient experience
• Improve follow-up rates

UC Health strives to build strong relationships with both patients and care providers at partner organizations. Delays and complex processes due to reliance on CDs led to frustrating experiences for both patients and care providers.

Dr. Ram Chadalavada, Vice Chair of Radiology – Informatics at UC Health emphasized how this inefficiency impacted both sides: “Patients want us, as physicians, to be able to make decisions for them, with them, and alongside their families. Having imaging at the core of our discussions is critical. We’re very patient-driven and that’s why we chose to implement PocketHealth. Relying on manual processes and CDs wasn’t supporting the patient experience we were aiming to deliver.”

The Solution

To overcome these challenges, UC Health chose to implement PocketHealth, a modern image exchange solution that directly integrated with their Epic MyChart patient portal. This implementation was aimed at enabling UC Health to eliminate the need for CDs and generating savings by simplifying their image exchange workflows.

Dr. Chadalavada highlighted how crucial it was to link imaging with the patient portal to boost patient engagement and satisfaction. He stressed the importance of complementary technologies that enhanced the overall portal experience. “We saw this as an opportunity to connect the MyChart experience with the patient by image-enabling the portal.” This integration was essential to complement the existing image exchange system at UC Health and create a more unified healthcare experience. 

Rishi Nayyar, Co-Founder & CEO of PocketHealth, echoed this sentiment, saying, “We are thrilled to be working with UC Health to provide a more efficient, better connected and more engaging care experience for all patients. Our network agnostic image exchange solution is generating savings and improving the image exchange experience for staff, patients and the referring community. Together, we are also improving patient engagement and follow-up compliance by surfacing radiologists’ follow-up recommendations directly to patients, in the context of their report. 

“It’s good for the patient, it’s also risk mitigating for us and our institution, our providers, and it’s just the right thing to do. If you do the right thing for the patient, it becomes the right thing for the health system.”

Dr. Ram Chadalavada, Vice Chair of Radiology – Informatics at UC Health

The Results

Within the first month of the service going live, over 6,000 patients have enrolled to access their imaging records. In that time, over 100,000 imaging studies have been released – the equivalent of more than 30,000 CDs.

While the implementation is still relatively new, PocketHealth is projected to create significant improvements, including saving UC Health $300K annually by eliminating the need for CDs and complex, time consuming image sharing workflows. Already, the integration is empowering patients by helping them better understand their health and encouraging compliance with follow-up imaging recommendations, improving both patient satisfaction and outcomes.

Dr. Chadalavada shared his enthusiasm for the technology and the forward-thinking processes that PocketHealth brought to UC Health. “It’s good for the patient, it’s also risk mitigating for us and our institution, our providers, and it’s just the right thing to do. If you do the right thing for the patient, it becomes the right thing for the health system.” he said.

Interested in learning more about how PocketHealth can enhance image sharing for providers and improve the patient experience?  Book a demo.