Progress toward paperless radiology in the digital environment: planning, implementation, and benefits.

A growing number of hospitals have installed PACS (Picture Archiving and Communications Systems) in order to improve patient care and to facilitate improved efficiencies. While eliminating films is commonly one of the first goals in planning a successful PACS implementation, eliminating the manual handling of paperwork can also produce a substantial benefit. We describe the process utilized at Maine Medical Center (MMC) to achieve a substantial degree of freedom from paperwork. Some of the benefits were expected, but some unexpected benefits also revealed themselves during this process.