Significant savings in radiologic report turnaround time after implementation of a complete picture archiving and communication system (PACS).

One of the important advantages of the picture archiving and communication system (PACS) is the time saved in comparison with the conventional system. A group of 100 radiologic studies done in a conventional radiology department is compared with another group of the same number done in a completely filmless PACS department to assess the difference in the radiologist report turnaround time. There was a statistically significant (P < .00001) decrease in the median imaging-to-dictation time (IDT) of the PACS group (3 hours and 40 minutes) in comparison with the pre-PACS group (25 hours and 19 minutes). This can be attributed to the fact that PACS eliminates all the workload associated with hard copy films, thus, improving the department's efficiency and decreasing the number of lost films.