One-fifth of U.S. hospitals plan to replace their picture archiving and communications systems, and nearly half have radiology systems more than five years old, according to a new market survey.

The survey, released Monday by health care market research firm CapSite, looked at the responses of 360 U.S. hospitals.

About 21 percent of hospitals surveyed said they planned on replacing their current radiology PACS system, up from 17 percent in 2009, when CapSite undertook its original study, according to the Williston, Vt.-based firm's senior vice president and general manager Gino Johnson.
The survey also confirmed recent findings that cardiology PACS adoption has risen in the last few years. According to the study, about 70 percent of cardiology systems were purchased within the last five years. However, around 52 percent of radiology PACS systems are more than five years old.

"The Radiology PACS market activity peaked during 2005 to 2007," Johnson said in a statement.

CapSite said the purpose of the study was to investigate the effects of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and HITECH Act on the PACS market. Earlier this month, a study by Millennium Research Group, a Toronto-based research firm, suggested that ARRA, which pays up to $44,000 per physician as an incentive to adopt electronic health records, would shift hospital IT budgets away from PACS and radiology information systems to EHRs until 2013.

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