The Future of Web Portals for Result Distribution

For a very long time, radiology centers, clinical labs and other diagnostic facilities were satisfied with offering Web Portals as an alternative to faxing as a means to deliver results.  Although Result Portals fill a niche in that they allow anywhere access to the results, for an everyday practical usage at referring practices, faxing is still preferred because of its PUSH nature rather than the PULL nature of a Portal.   That is the main reason why facilities that offer Portals have been unable to wean referring practices off faxing.

In this context, PUSH implies that the results are pushed from the diagnostic facility to the referring practice without the referring practice initiating the process.   Fax is an example of a PUSH where the results are faxed by the diagnostic center to the referring practice when results are available.  Portals on the other hand require the referring practice to login to the portal to PULL their results when they are available. 

With over 60 percent of referring practices now using an EMR and with the compliance requirements imposed by ACI and MU, there is a need for an alternative to faxing that employs PUSH technology.  Traditional EMR Integration would be considered PUSH, but the exorbitant costs and the time it takes to build such interfaces makes it cost and time prohibitive to utilize on a global scale for ALL referring providers.  There is a need for an alternative to faxing that is not only PUSH in nature, but is also cost- effective and helps referring providers meet their compliance requirements.

A secure solution like DigitalOne’s Desktop Delivery fits that bill perfectly.