Nov. 17, 2014

 

In two years at Amarillo College, a typical student of radiography is required to spend about 1,800 hours training at healthcare facilities in and around Amarillo, performing hundreds of x-ray, ultrasound and related patient procedures.

 

With about 50 students in the program at a given time, mandatory documentation of the hours spent and the procedures performed piles up fast when it’s relegated to paper, as it has been in years past.

 

But not this year. Becky Burton, director of AC’s Radiography Program, elected this semester to pilot an electronic data-keeping system available through Typhon Group Student Tracking Systems. For a modest set-up fee of $250, and an annual administrative fee that’s even less, AC, at least this year, has a secure electronic student-tracking system that has vastly reduced the paper load.

 

And in addition to comprehensively tracking and logging who is doing what, where, the system also supports student scheduling, curriculum mapping, secure document management, and student portfolios and biographic databases.

 

Not only has the system streamlined accreditation-mandated record keeping for AC faculty, but administrators at the clinical sites are beneficiaries, too; they no longer have to chase down paperwork to authenticate a student’s immunization records, for example—they simply access Typhon Group.

 

“We get amazing, invaluable data, a reduction in paperwork and a wealth of data we never had before,” Burton said. “We see how many exams students are doing per site, per room. Because it is secure, we can now see age demographics of the patients examined. We believe this system will improve our scheduling and therefore our ability to ensure equal opportunities for students.

 

“Our clinical sites seem equally pleased by the data,” she said. “They can see the work flow, which studies are recurring the most, and on which days. They see how much time our students are taking with specific exams. It’s been very well received.”

 

It’s a pilot program at present, but all indications are that AC’s Radiography Program will be utilizing Typhon Group Student Tracking Systems into the future. The program did cost students in the program a one-time fee of $78, for which they get three years of accessibility; however, Burton says that expense was more than offset for students by eliminating a costly textbook from curriculum requirements.

 

For more information about the Radiography Program at Amarillo College, you can contact Becky Burton at (806 354-6099 or bkburton@actx.edu.