e-LOCUM’s remote reporting service for Nuclear Medicine, recently swung into action at Lister Hospital in Stevenage, Hertfordshire. Faced with a capacity problem, highlighted by one of their radiologists going on a sabbatical, Lister Hospital turned to e-LOCUM for assistance over the short term. A connection was set up and went ‘live’ within a matter of days. For a period of about ten weeks now, e-LOCUM has been reporting on Lister Hospital’s Department of Nuclear Medicine’s bone scans, averaging about seven per day, over a two to three day period per week. 
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NEW REMOTE REPORTING SERVICE FOR NUCLEAR MEDICINE ABLE TO STEP IN AT SHORT NOTICE
This unique reporting service was established as a new, cost-effective, flexible locum or second consultant solution by Professor Michael Maisey and colleagues. It provides a remote Nuclear Medicine, Nuclear Cardiology and PET scan reporting services to NHS and private healthcare facilities in the UK and also worldwide.
Diane Salisbury, Superintendent Radiographer in the Nuclear Medicine Department says:“
e -LOCUM established the connections extremely rapidly and efficiently, which worked well from the outset; we have had no problems at all in communicating images or reports. Professor Maisey and the e -LOCUM service have provided us with a very efficient and clinically professional service and we are extremely pleased with the outcome of these arrangements. The reputation of Professor Maisey and his colleagues gave us the confidence to use the service and we have not been disappointed.
The service provided to Lister Hospital demonstrates e- LOCUM's ability to fill a short-term vacancy to avoid a breakdown in a hospital's Nuclear Medicine reporting procedures. An added bonus for the Lister Hospital is the fact that the service brought the waiting list down for cancer patients awaiting bone scans. Although concentrating on bone scans for cancer diagnosis and orthopaedics, the Department always had the option to extend the service to other studies if necessary, and, in fact, they plan to continue to use e -LOCUM in the future to cover holidays and other unforeseen circumstances. Professor Michael Maisey, Emeritus Professor, Guy's & St. Thomas' NHS Trust, and a one of the founders of e- LOCUM commented:
we were able to set up a connection within just a few days with no hardware and minimal cost. Lister Hospital is an extremely good example of our ability to fill a short-term vacancy to enable the service to be continued.
The concept of remote reporting is simple but effective and takes advantage of today's sophisticated electronic communications. Using software provided by the company, Pukka-J, specialists in the field of teleradiology, scans can be sent, usually at the end of the day, to a secure website server. Reports are then e-mailed back early the next morning. Diane Salisbury, commenting on the experience at Lister Hospital says, “
Reports are always available for our secretaries in a timely manner, either the same day or by 9.00 a.m. the following morning.
The Lister Hospital in Stevenage is part of the East & North Hertfordshire NHS Trust.
Further information on the Nuclear Medicine, Nuclear Cardiology and PET remote reporting service is available on www.e-locum.net or by contacting us
