The Company
Wakefield Radiology provides radiological services in the Wellington Region. It has six branches throughout the Wellington and Wairarapa regions, each equipped with state of the art equipment. Trevor FitzJohn, who has managed Wakefield Radiology since 1991, is very happy with the improvements in patient care and efficiency that have resulted from technologies such as digital imaging, a computerised information system, and a picture archiving and communication system (PACS) that stores and retrieves the digital images.
Trevor FitzJohn leads a team of three other radiologists, all of whom have extensive medical training and expertise, and are responsible for writing patient reports. Wakefield Radiology is also made up of a team of radiographers who carry out the imaging, typists who take care of patient reports, receptionists and accounts staff, as well as administrative and information technology (IT) specialists.
Wakefield Radiology is essentially an information company. Information is the core input and output in the business process. Technologies (both human and electronic) process this information. As with all medical services, radiology services comprise the transfer of information from patients (e.g. identifying information about patients, such as name, address, date of birth; the unique information provided of the patient's medical condition as a result of undertaking a diagnostic procedure) which is in turn processed using the knowledge and skills of the radiologist into a diagnostic report, itself an information product that is produced for the patient and/or the referring medical practitioner. ICTs are core to the business, being a vital part of both the diagnostic radiology services offered by the firm, and the management of storage and retrieval of patient information, including historical images and reports. The technical expertise of the radiographers is combined with physical technologies to capture, process, store and retrieve information. Hence, Trevor has access to and can draw on the skills and knowledge of staff with a wide range of information specialties - receptionists and clerical staff in addition to medical staff and technical staff who operate and maintain the equipment - computers and computerised imaging technology - used in the processes. He also utilises the services of IT specialists provided by technology vendors to get maximum benefits from the technology at minimum cost, noting that the company operates in a cost plus setting with IT.
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