Different Karisma features will be of varying benefit to each user depending on the function they perform within the organisation and the tasks they undertake. The following section outlines the features and benefits of Karisma as they apply to different roles in your organisation.

Radiologists

Primarily, Radiologists are concerned with three main areas of Karisma: Patient Management, Results Management and PACS Integration.

Specific features of Karisma allow Radiologists to conduct extensive searches for information such as past reports and clinical notes; to navigate the program “hands-free” via voice recognition; create reports from remote locations such as at home; and perform specialised review work.

Patient Management:

• Simple search features (including barcode and voice-driven) to look up and view:
  • Current or Past Reports
  • Requests
  • Worksheet
  • Invoice and Payment Details
  • Clinical Notes
  • Electronic Orders
  • Request Forms
  • More...
• Quick access to recently modified patients.

Results Management:

• Use Karisma’s full desktop integration with major PACS offerings.
• Employ personalised colour scheme and brightness settings for use in low-light reporting settings.
• Enlist voice recognition to complete free-text or template-based reports.
• Navigate the program, hands-free, via integrated voice recognition.
• Use Karisma’s inbuilt and intuitive digital dictation functionality to report and manage voice files.
• Define report templates to be associated with particular examinations, or selected on-demand from (voice-driven) pre-defined template group lists.
• Include standard reports, sections, or other content on-demand.
• Include document and/or medical images in reports.
• Enter reports via direct or background speech recognition, typing or digital dictation.
• Rapidly review/verify reports in single or batch mode, including synchronised hanging of corresponding images with many PACS systems.
• Report from remote locations – such as your own home.
• Easily configure and drive report worklists by:
  • Modality
  • Worksite
  • Exam Type
  • Referring Clinician
  • Assigned Radiologist
  • More...
• Perform report changes in a word processor, developed by Kestral especially for Karisma, which operates similar to Microsoft® Word, but with increased safety and printing flexibility and without having to wait for another application to start.

PACS Integration:

• Automatic linking of examinations in Karisma reporting work lists to the PACS images prepared by MITs. Radiologists can access relevant Karisma information (for example request form images, prior reports, request billing details and the like) while reviewing, manipulating, and reporting images.
• Karisma can be configured to automatically start a dictation or directly generate report text via integrated voice recognition at the same time as presenting the images acquired then managed in the PACS. Completed reports are also sent through to the PACS for automatic association with the images if desired. Most PACS systems provide functionality to burn both images and the associated report onto CD’s for distribution and review by referring clinicians on their own.
• Specialised review work lists in Karisma will successively bring up previously typed or (voice) recognised reports side by side with the corresponding PACS images for rapid authorisation and release if working in a supervised or double-reporting protocol.
  

Medical Imaging Technologists

MITs using Karisma will most often make use of Patient and Service Request Management features, as well as specific Results Management and PACS Integration functions.

Using these key features, MITs can monitor and manage patient flow via work lists; transfer patient demographics and examination details; record examination data; automatically link examinations to current and prior PACS images and more.

Patient and Service Request Management:

• Monitor and manage patient flow from user configurable work lists by modality, section, room or exam code, or for mobile examinations.
• Modify registered examinations if needed and automatically print updated labels.
• Add examination comments to assist clinicians with diagnosis.
• Easily access film bag, order, and scheduling information from the patient menu or work lists.
• Transfer patient demographics and examination details automatically to modality work lists for PACS-based practices and departments.
• Track patients automatically.
• Quick access to recently modified patients.
  

Results Management:

• Record examination, interview, film, consumable and radiation dose details either at the time of examination or retrospectively.
• Accept information such as acquisition start and end times and statistical image data, where available, from modality machines.
  

PACS Integration:

• Seamlessly and automatically link examinations in Karisma to current and prior PACS images. Karisma work lists allow MITs to view prior examinations (such as for positioning) prior to performing the current study. MITs can access relevant Karisma information such as request form images, while performing QA functions; as well as seamlessly verify the QA work and record relevant completion information in Karisma for progression through to radiologists’ reporting lists.
  
• The back-end HL7 interface sends information from Karisma to the PACS for DICOM modality work lists, the required PACS examination folders, etc. It also sends patient demographic updates, merge messages and changes in patient location.
  
• The combined back-end and desktop integration greatly reduces the amount of keying required by MITs while eliminating transcription errors that would otherwise cause mismatches between the RIS and PACS information. MITs can concentrate on preparing PACS images for superior presentation to the radiologists, while the combined system smoothly and efficiently optimises the workflow. This results in better outcomes for patients, radiologists, clerical staff, and the MITs themselves.

Accounts Staff

For Accounts staff, Karisma provides integrated accounting functionality, eliminating the need to employ a third-party Accounting package and the related problems with integration with PACS.

Using Karisma, Accounts staff can produce quotes without registering a request; automatically or manually process exception and electronic funds transfer statements; print Medicare claim forms; produce bad debt lists and more. Just a few of our Accounting benefits are listed below.

• Integration with Medicare Australia's online claiming.
• Support for all Medicare Schedule 1 Diagnostic Imaging and Nuclear Medicine HIC rules.
• Upload of schedule fee changes.
• Create additional schedules for an unlimited number of other fee structures.
• Produce a quotation for a patient without having to register a service request.
• Perform on the spot invoicing and receipting, or invoice generation in runs.
• Print DB4 and Medicare claim forms.
• Electronically transfer Medicare and Veterans’ Affairs batches to HIC, and private claims to insurance companies, with accompanying paperwork.
• Automatically or manually process exception and electronic funds transfer statements.
• Perform manual or automatic full payment, banking and end of month processing.
• Produce reports on breakdown of figures for GST compliance.
• Use Karisma’s complete audit, journal and financial statistics reporting; including General Ledger statements, Aged Summary and Outstanding Debtors reports.
• Produce bad debt lists and reminders.
• Handle receipting of payments and refunds.
• Support multiple financial interest group capabilities; including the splitting of all reports and money figures for each site.
• Produce statistical HTML reports of daily, weekly, monthly activity, with hot links and drill down to associated and/or detail information.

Reception & Clerical Staff

Reception and Clerical Staff are primarily concerned with Patient and Service Management tasks; as well as Results Management, Film Bag tracking and Scheduling; and benefit from a host of administration features built-in to Karisma.

Using these features, Receptionists and Clerks can quickly find patient records in the database; manage multiple patient identifiers; print invoices for services completed; receive payments to invoices raised; embed images within a report and more.

Patient and Service Request Management:

• Welcome patients from a daily list of appointments, sorted by any convenient criteria such as patient name, expected arrival time or examination type (modality).
• Quickly and accurately find patients via a variety of search criteria.
• Quick access to recently modified patients.
• Enter data by keyboard, lookup selection, voice command, barcode or electronic order entry.
• Improve speed and accuracy in data entry pages through the use of mandatory fields, pre-filling (by hospital system or default rules) and automated data checking rules.
• Easily manage multiple patient identifiers – such as health fund numbers, Medicare numbers, Veterans’ Affairs (VA) numbers and hospital medical record numbers (MRNs).
• Record clinical, accounting or general notes, referral and billing details.
• Send reports automatically or on-demand to multiple doctors or other health entities via print, fax, email, or health-specific electronic distribution channels.
• Monitor print and fax queues with enhanced monitoring tools.
• Access patient accounting and pricing, lookup results, view appointments or film bags from patient request lists.
• Easily merge duplicate patient records.
• View and manage all service requests for a patient, in date and time order.
• Scan and store patient request slips, questionnaires and other hard copy material for on-line access throughout the department.
• Track patients’ statuses as the service progresses through each patient visit.
• Print invoices and collect payments (including electronic payments) on the spot, while the program calculates all item numbers, fees, discounts, and gap amounts for you.
• Use the price window to quickly see a quote for an examination or service request.
  

Results Management:

• Allow typists and clerical staff to manage their work via user configurable work lists, which display outstanding work, with fields and sorting options to suit their needs.
• Track patients via user configurable work lists, allowing you to trace the exact location and status of patients either within, or on their way to or from the department.
• Use Karisma’s full reporting auditing capability to review previously saved reports and compare one version of a report to another.
• Add addendum reports.
• Streamline clinical reporting via inbuilt voice recognition functionality.
• Embed images (such as key images, scanned worksheets, and the like) within reports.
• Perform word processing with a full GUI word processor similar to Microsoft® Word but with much greater safety and printing flexibility – and no waiting for another application to start.
• Use Karisma’s inbuilt and intuitive digital dictation system to retrieve and transcribe voice clips.
• Use Karisma’s embedded dictionaries and spell checking functionality.
  

Film Bag Tracking:

• Automatically track hard copy images in permanent and temporary film bags.
• Scan bar codes to enter bag details and monitor locations.
• Simultaneously manage multiple bags, bag types, and filing locations for each patient.
• Loan or transfer bags, cull bags, remove temporary bags.
• Automatically create bag requests and picking lists for quick retrieval and returns.
• Rapidly process bags in single or batch mode.
• Manually reorganize series numbers to facilitate incorporation of external films and merging of film bags in sequential order.

Scheduling:

• View and schedule appointments from any workstation in the department, from user configured diaries, patient menu or work lists.
• Schedule multiple appointments across multiple modalities with multiple procedure steps requiring multiple resources of multiple types.
• Schedule with minimal information, such as name, gender and examination, and record full demographic information later.
• Customise the appointments diaries on a per worksite and per user basis - with different levels of access and control for different users.
• Let the system suggest suitable appointment dates and times based on the availability of both the patient and the required resources such as rooms and doctors.
• Store related information such as confirmation of appointment, future operations and appointments, anaesthetic requirements and patient allergies.
• Construct and automatically deliver, via various methods including email and text message, preparation instructions and reminders of appointment times.
• Store calendar information including meetings, public holidays or equipment servicing and thereby block the availability of resources at designated times.
  

Referring Practitioners

For referring practitioners integrated report distribution will ensure that you receive your reports in an accurate and timely manner.

Results Management:

• Provide report distribution to referrers via individual or batched hard copy; automatic and manual fax, secure, encrypted email and electronic distribution of PIT and HL7 format reports to practice management software.
• Broadcast results to, or be queried by, external systems, such as clinical repositories, using integrated HL7 messaging.
• Use Kestral’s web-based result lookup application to securely view appointments and clinical reports – including full auditing.
• Integrate with major PACS systems to provide combined report/image review functionality via web-enquiry.
• Order electronically and link the order to the subsequent clinical report, where supported by the referrer’s clinical system.
  

PACS Integration:

• Integrate Kestral’s web-based result viewer option (CIS) with a PACS web viewer to allow clinicians to view their patients’ service requests and reports, and the associated PACS images via a simple seamless web-interface.
• Send results electronically to referring clinicians; including URLs that link back to the relevant images in a web viewer for immediate access.
• Send PACS images and the related reports to referring clinicians (on CD) for direct viewing on the clinician’s PC, if required.