OrthoIllinois

Driving a 503% ROI: How OrthoIllinois Automated 3,300+ Monthly Transfers and Reclaimed 275+ Staff Hours

As one of the premier multispecialty orthopedic providers in the Midwest, OrthoIllinois captures the entire patient journey under one roof, combining clinical care, urgent care, surgery centers, diagnostics, physical rehab, and employer health programs.

For years, however, one persistent obstacle slowed this integrated approach: getting the right diagnostic images into the hands of the right provider at the right time.

The Problem: A Patchwork System

Prior to deploying Medicom in 2023, OrthoIllinois faced multiple operational and clinical roadblocks due to legacy technology and manual workflows:

• Reliance on VPNs and CDs: Like many growing orthopedic groups, OrthoIllinois managed image sharing through direct VPN connections that required constant manual maintenance. A heavy dependence on physical media resulted in significant operational costs and delays in patient care.
• The Clinical Blind Spot: While the existing records system could locate written medical histories, providers could not plan care based on a text description; they needed direct access to the actual diagnostic scans.
• Manual Chart Prepping Burden: The teams dedicated multiple days a week to chart preparation, a task so intensive that some clinic staff were assigned exclusively to this role.
• Security Vulnerabilities: Accepting external physical media exposed the practice's internal network to malware and HIPAA compliance risks.

The Solution: Streamlined Image Management

To resolve operational bottlenecks, OrthoIllinois implemented Medicom’s cloud-based image-sharing platform. This transition effectively eliminated the need for manual VPN maintenance and physical CD distribution. By replacing slow, costly workflows, the organization accelerated time-to-care while removing overhead and shipping expenses associated with legacy media.

In digitizing its legacy workflows, OrthoIllinois made image retrieval a proactive rather than reactive process. Instead of teams scrambling during chart prep, the system uses upcoming appointments and orders to automatically retrieve relevant prior studies. When patients arrive today, their imaging history is already accessible, eliminating manual, last-minute hunting by coordinators.

The shift to a centralized digital platform also eliminated the security loopholes inherent in handling external physical media. By transferring all medical imaging through a secure, encrypted, and fully HIPAA-compliant network, OrthoIllinois insulated its internal infrastructure from malware risks. The resulting ecosystem safeguarded patient data and established a scalable blueprint for modern, efficient healthcare operations.

"Before Smart Search, I spent a lot of time trying to help our teams get imaging, including calling other facilities. A lot of that's been taken off of my plate because of the integration. Medicom is doing the heavy lifting through automated processes. Not having to manually chase charts has really changed the way that we chart prep and has saved so much time."

-Kate Schwartz, OrthoIllinois PACS Admin

Evaluation, Implementation, and Support

OrthoIllinois first encountered Medicom when trying to obtain imaging from an outside practice. That facility was able to quickly and seamlessly send the scans through Medicom Patient Link. Witnessing how easily an external organization could transmit diagnostic data without physical media prompted OrthoIllinois leadership to evaluate how the platform could resolve their own internal imaging delays.

After selecting Medicom, the implementation process was smooth, with no major hurdles. According to the PACS Administrator, Kate Schwartz, “I just don't remember any pain points. The team kind of held our hand through the whole thing.”

OrthoIllinois is enthusiastic about Medicom's ongoing support. Schwartz emphasized, “The system is so stable that my team barely felt a ripple during implementation. We rarely need to reach out for assistance, but when we do need a hand, they're extremely responsive and able to troubleshoot and correct any issues we have right away. It feels like a true partnership rather than just a software vendor."

Inside the OrthoIllinois Tech Stack

• Smart Search: Smart Search is an LLM-powered system that automatically finds relevant prior studies by dynamically adapting to varied abbreviations and coding conventions, eliminating the need for rigid manual mapping. As Schwartz explains, "Instead of creating, sending, and waiting for fax confirmations, our team can proactively search for the imaging and manually pull it if needed. With Smart Search, we're getting imaging well ahead of time.”
• Patient Link: This outbound module is used to instantly distribute diagnostic-quality imaging without physical media. Patients receive a secure link to view, download, or forward images natively in a web browser, requiring no specialized software.
• UpLink: As the inbound counterpart to Patient Link, UpLink allows patients and off-network providers to submit prior imaging through a browser, with no software or accounts required. OrthoIllinois uses it to collect prior imaging from external referrers ahead of appointments, eliminating the CD-by-mail wait.

Clinical and Operational Wins

By replacing manual workflows with automation, the platform delivered immediate dividends across OrthoIllinois’s administrative, clinical, and patient-facing operations:

• Elimination of Administrative Waste: Before Medicom, OrthoIllinois spent a great deal of time tracking down scans, including calling other facilities. Schwartz is relieved by the time savings they’ve experienced, saying, "A lot of that's been taken off of my plate because of the integration.”
• Eliminating Delays and Rescheduling: Having imaging automatically sent ahead of time helps ensure providers can review the scans before a patient walks through the door, minimizing the costs of last-minute cancellations and rescheduled appointments.
• Reduction in Patient Risk: Proactive imaging access helps minimize duplicate scans, shielding patients from unnecessary insurance hurdles and reducing concerns over extra radiation exposure.
• Establishing the No-CD Standard: By offering digital links, OrthoIllinois actively enforces a no physical media policy. When patients and other providers understand they don’t need to send a CD because Medicom’s options are quicker and more reliable, “that usually puts them at ease,” Schwartz shared.
• Patient Experience: Patients appreciate not being burdened with a CD and how quickly they receive imaging.

The Impact: OrthoIllinois by the Numbers

By replacing a fractured network of CDs, faxes, and manual VPNs with Medicom, OrthoIllinois completely transformed its imaging workflow. The operational and financial dividends include:

• 3,300+ Frictionless Transfers Each Month: Every single working day, ~165 diagnostic studies are automatically routed to the right provider. What used to require a flurry of phone calls, mailed discs, and days of waiting now happens instantly and securely, with zero manual intervention.
• 275+ Staff Hours Reclaimed Monthly: Before Medicom, chasing down a single study took up to five minutes, which included creating an image request sheet, faxing, and checking the PACS. By eliminating this administrative bottleneck, OrthoIllinois has clawed back more than 277 staff hours every month, effectively returning these hours to direct patient care and high-value clinical work.
• 145+ CDs Eliminated Each Month: By replacing physical media with secure Patient Links, the practice has eliminated the burden of processing ~146 discs each month, saving nearly $613 monthly in materials and postage ($4.20/disc), and reclaiming more than seven hours of staff time each month (nearly 90 hours a year). In addition to these savings, the move neutralized substantial malware exposure.

Conservatively accounting for reclaimed staff time and direct cost savings, OrthoIllinois is generating an estimated annual ROI of more than 503%, a return that has grown steadily since the practice first eliminated its disc-based workflow.

A Model for Forward-Thinking Healthcare Networks

OrthoIllinois’s transition to Medicom demonstrates the profound impact of modernizing medical image management. By replacing fragmented legacy processes with automated, cloud-based sharing, the organization addressed administrative waste and security vulnerabilities, which elevated its standard of care. OrthoIllinois serves as a prime example of how forward-thinking healthcare networks can embrace smart automation to protect patient data, reduce staff burden, and help ensure that specialists have immediate access to the critical data required for precise care planning.

"The system is so stable that my team barely felt a ripple during implementation. We rarely need to reach out for assistance, but when we do need a hand, they're extremely responsive and able to troubleshoot and correct any issues we have right away. It feels like a true partnership rather than just a software vendor.”

-Kate Schwartz, OrthoIllinois PACS Admin