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Dear Team Members, 

As many of you have seen over the last several weeks, UVA Health has experienced a number of Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS) outages that have impacted our organization. Used by our team members to access patient imaging, PACS is a vital system we use every day to deliver care. 

Given the high volume of outages we have experienced, we want team members to be aware of the following: 

1. We are actively working with our vendor to resolve the recurring issues we’ve been experiencing. At this time, we have instituted some processes to help stabilize our PACS environment, while continuing to work with the highest levels of leadership at Philips, our vendor, in order to fully diagnose the root cause of the problems we are encountering with the expressed goal of resolving any outstanding issues as soon as possible. 

2. For some areas, we are working to implement a backup protocol that would allow team members to access PACS’ auxiliary system in the event of another outage, which would contain imaging captured prior to the outage taking place. Although we are not able to deploy this solution across all areas — to ensure we do not overload PACS’ auxiliary system — we are currently evaluating whether this can be done for some time-sensitive, image-dependent areas, such as the Perioperative areas, Cancer Center, Neurosciences, and Orthopedics. Stay tuned for updates as we evaluate this pathway. To escalate any pressing issues, please consult with your leader, who may escalate up their chain of command. 

3. Should another outage occur, there are other pathways to access imaging. For University Medical Center, providers may call 4-XRAY (4-9729) to speak with a radiologist for interpretations of critical images (ED or ICU, trauma patients, etc.). If required, the radiologist will request an email to initiate a ‘screen share’ with the requestor (e.g. Teams, WebEx or Zoom). 

4. At UVA Community Health facilities (Prince William, Haymarket and Culpeper), life-threatening radiology reads may be elevated for immediate attention by following the process outlined below, which should only be used for patients presenting with signs of stroke, pulmonary embolism, aortic dissection, or aortic aneurysm. 

• For Radiology Technologists sending images directly to the FRG send destination on the modality.  Provided Epic is still operational, select Reading Priority 1 and FRG as the reading area during the end exam workflow so that they receive the order. 
• Call 1-877-374-7231 Or (412) 230-8200 Press: 2 
• Provide the Service Specialist the patient’s name and the reason a SuperSTAT is requested. 
• If Answering Service takes the call, ask the representative to make sure to note “SuperSTAT” or “Stroke” upgrade.  Answering Service calls are monitored regularly. 
• If a patient’s condition is worsening or a status check is required, please call 1-877-374-7231. In the event of an emergency, and if calls are not going through, check the Departmental Schedule for the On-Call UVA Community Health Radiologist.

Please know that our teams are working tirelessly to resolve these issues as quickly as possible, and we will communicate updates as more information becomes available. 

In the meantime, we appreciate your patience and apologize for these unforeseeable issues with our PACS service. 

Sincerely, 

Cree Gaskin, MD FACR
Vice Chair, Clinical Operations and Informatics, Radiology
Associate Chief Medical Information Officer, UVA Health 

Min Lee
Chief Operating Officer 
UVA Health University Medical Center 

Robin Parkin 
Chief Information Officer 
UVA Health 

Donna Staton
Chief Operating Officer 
UVA Community Health