Mobile CT PACS Acceptance Checklist: Six Test Cases Before Go-Live

A temporary CT scanner needs a documented path from the imaging order to the study the radiologist opens. Before moving clinical volume, give hospital IT, PACS administrators and imaging leaders a shared acceptance plan: the scenarios to test, the evidence to retain and the person who can close each issue.

The following six cases are a planning framework for a mobile CT project. Adapt them to the hospital’s systems, intended exam mix and approved testing procedures. Use hospital-approved test identities and test data; do not expose patient information in vendor correspondence or marketing material.

Start with the assigned configuration

Record the assigned scanner model and software version, the receiving PACS and worklist systems, the intended image destinations, and the technical contacts for each. Ask the responsible vendors for the corresponding DICOM Conformance Statements. DICOM explains that these statements identify supported functions and help knowledgeable users assess whether systems can communicate; a general statement that a device supports DICOM is not the whole compatibility assessment.

Then agree on an acceptance worksheet. Give each case a named owner, expected result, actual result, evidence location, issue reference and retest date. Keep technical configuration details in the hospital’s approved project record. The project manager needs the outcome and owner, not a collection of credentials or sensitive screenshots.

1. A scheduled order reaches the intended scanner

Create an approved test order through the hospital’s normal test process. Ask the technologist to locate it at the temporary scanner and compare the test identity, accession number and requested examination with the originating record. Check the location and worklist filters the department expects to use.

A useful acceptance record shows that the intended order appeared where the team expected it and could be selected without an unexplained workaround. IHE’s Scheduled Workflow profile connects ordering, scheduling, acquisition, storage and viewing, with consistent patient and ordering information across those steps. That makes this a workflow check, not simply a network check.

2. The agreed image set reaches the correct destination

Have the hospital define a representative test study and its expected series before sending it. Confirm that the agreed images and other required objects arrive at each intended destination, with the expected identity and examination association. Record any missing, rejected or unexpected series for investigation.

Avoid closing the case solely because a transfer completed at the scanner. Ask the receiving team to confirm what arrived. Where the workflow includes additional processing or a second destination, give that path its own expected result rather than assuming one successful route proves every route.

3. The reading team can find and open the study

Ask a designated reading-workflow user to find the test examination through the normal viewing route. Confirm the expected study association, series availability and usable presentation in the actual viewer. Include any department-required post-processing handoff in the test scope.

Record the result separately from image receipt. This keeps the acceptance discussion concrete: the archive received the study, and the reading team verified its own part of the workflow. Neither observation alone represents full clinical approval of the scanner or its protocols.

4. A correction follows the approved reconciliation process

Choose a relevant exception with registration, radiology and IT—for example, correcting a deliberately mis-entered test demographic field. Agree in advance where the correction originates, who performs it and how the team will confirm the resulting records.

Run this only in the hospital-approved test process. Document whether the intended correction reaches the affected systems or requires an approved manual step. Do not improvise with real patient records to demonstrate an exception. The acceptance worksheet should identify the operational owner of reconciliation after go-live.

5. A failed transfer has an understood recovery path

Ask the technical team to choose a controlled test of a failed or delayed transfer that will not disrupt clinical systems. Establish how staff will recognize the problem, whom they will contact, and how they will confirm that the intended study is available after recovery.

Capture unresolved questions about retry behavior, partial studies or duplicate handling for the responsible vendors. Do not assume the behavior is identical to the permanent scanner. If the team cannot safely exercise a scenario, record the documented recovery procedure and the remaining validation gap rather than marking an unperformed test as passed.

6. The handoff works beyond the installation team

Give the operating team a short handoff covering the approved worklist and routing workflow, the escalation contact for each system, and the location of the hospital’s downtime procedure. Include the people responsible outside the installation window.

Ask a representative user to explain the next step for a missing order, a missing study and an unresolved identity mismatch. This discussion can reveal an ownership gap even when the technical test cases have passed. Record who will monitor early operational issues and who can authorize configuration changes.

Close the test record before closing the workstream

For each case, retain a clear outcome: passed, failed, or not tested. A failed or untested case needs an owner and an explicit decision under the hospital’s readiness process. Recheck affected cases after a relevant configuration change.

DICOM’s conformance-statement guidance explicitly distinguishes compatibility documentation from validation with the actual connected equipment. Use that distinction in the project schedule: document review prepares the test, and observed results support acceptance. PACS acceptance remains one part of the hospital’s broader clinical, equipment and facility readiness process.

For the wider deployment sequence, see Atlas Medical’s mobile CT installation guide. To discuss an upcoming temporary imaging project, contact Atlas Medical with the intended start date, exam mix and hospital technical contacts.