The Radiology Department at Sligo University Hospital reaches 1million mark

The Radiology Department at Sligo University Hospital has reached a milestone of one million patient examinations since introducing the National Integrated Medical Imaging System (NIMIS) to the hospital 9 years ago.

Dr Stephen Davitt, Consultant Radiologist at Sligo University Hospital and Radiology Associate Clinical Director for the Saolta Hospital Group said, “We were the first hospital to go live with the NIMIS in June 2011. It has huge advantages as it is a digital filmless system with access to all of a patient's previous imaging, at the click of a button.

“Most hospitals in Ireland are now connected to this nationwide radiology image storage system which means we are able to securely view patients’ scans performed in other hospitals around the country, while reporting at our workstations in Sligo. Prior to NIMIS, we would have had to repeat the scan locally or have a copy of the scan from the other hospital posted or sent by courier to us.

“On Friday 10 July, we registered our 1,000,000th patient examination in Sligo University Hospital's Radiology Department since NIMIS was installed. This is a significant milestone which reflects the hard work of all staff in the department and also the increasing demand for our services, many of which are provided on a 24/7, 365 days a year basis to our sickest patients.

“It is a timely reminder of just how dependent modern medicine has become on all forms of imaging including X-Rays, Ultrasound, CT, MRI and Nuclear Medicine as well as minimally invasive procedures performed in radiology. As the demand continues to increase, I suspect we will reach the two million mark a bit quicker!"

Grainne McCann, Manager of Sligo University Hospital added, “We were very fortunate to be chosen to lead out on the introduction of the HSE’s national NIMIS system in 2011. Our patients were among the first to benefit from the speed and accuracy of having all their x-rays and scans available to view digitally which meant less repeat scanning and quicker diagnosis. In little over nine years our Radiology Department have reached their one millionth examination which is over 2,000 per week. This is an incredible achievement and I would like to acknowledge the work by all the staff in the department who provide an excellent patient-centred service.”