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What This Guide Helps With
Troubleshooting Symbia Intevo workstation, DICOM, archive, RIS/PACS, network, or study transfer failures using safe external checks first.
Step-by-Step Troubleshooting
Ensure Patient Safety First
Confirm the Symbia Intevo is not actively scanning, reconstructing, or transferring a clinically urgent study.
If a patient is on the table or the exam is in progress, do not interrupt acquisition or workstation processes unless directed by qualified imaging staff.
Expected outcome: Troubleshooting does not interrupt imaging, delay care, or risk study data loss.
Confirm the Exact Communication Complaint
Ask Nuclear Medicine or imaging staff what failed.
Identify whether the issue involves:
- Acquisition workstation not responding
- Study will not send to PACS
- DICOM send failure
- Archive failure
- RIS worklist not loading
- Modality worklist mismatch
- Study stuck in queue
- Images missing from PACS
- Reconstructed images not transferring
- System cannot reach network destination
- Error occurred after a reboot, network change, or scheduled downtime
Expected outcome: The issue is separated into workstation, local network, DICOM destination, RIS/worklist, PACS/archive, or workflow-related failure.
Verify the Study Is Complete and Available Locally
Have qualified imaging staff confirm the study exists on the acquisition workstation and can be opened locally.
Confirm whether raw data, reconstructed images, CT images, fused SPECT/CT images, or secondary captures are affected.
Expected outcome: The issue is confirmed as a communication/export problem, not a failed acquisition or missing local study.
If the study is not available locally, stop and escalate as an acquisition or workstation data issue.
Check for Active Patient or Study Processing
Confirm the workstation is not still reconstructing, processing, or finalizing the study.
Some transfers may not begin until the exam or reconstruction step is complete.
Expected outcome: A delayed transfer is not mistaken for a failed transfer.
If the transfer completes after processing finishes, document the delay and stop.
Check Workstation Power and Basic Operation
Confirm the acquisition workstation, monitors, keyboard, mouse, and any related computer peripherals are powered on and responsive.
Look for frozen screens, login prompts, application errors, or abnormal system behavior.
Expected outcome: The workstation is available for normal use before network or PACS troubleshooting begins.
Check Physical Network Connections
Inspect the Ethernet connection at the workstation, wall jack, network switch connection point if accessible, and any nearby patch cable.
Confirm the cable is fully seated and not damaged, stretched, crushed, or disconnected.
Expected outcome: A loose or damaged network connection is ruled out.
If reseating the cable restores communication, confirm successful DICOM or worklist function and stop.
Confirm Network Link Indicators
Check for link/activity lights at the workstation network port or connected network equipment if visible.
A missing link light may indicate a disconnected cable, bad patch cable, disabled wall jack, or network port issue.
Expected outcome: The device has a basic physical network link.
If there is no link light after cable and jack checks, escalate to IT/network support and document the finding.
Try a Known-Good Network Cable if Accessible
Replace the external Ethernet patch cable with a known-good cable if the workstation uses an accessible patch cable.
Do not move internal scanner, gantry, table, or cabinet wiring.
Expected outcome: A simple external cable failure is ruled out.
If the known-good cable restores communication, document the cable replacement and stop.
Confirm Other Networked Systems Are Working
Ask imaging staff whether other modalities in the department can send to PACS or receive RIS worklists.
If multiple devices are affected, the issue is likely network, RIS, PACS, archive, or enterprise-system related rather than isolated to the Symbia Intevo.
Expected outcome: The failure is classified as device-specific or broader system-wide.
Check Whether the Failure Is One Destination or All Destinations
Determine whether the Symbia Intevo can send to any DICOM destination.
Examples:
- PACS fails but local archive works
- Archive fails but PACS works
- RIS worklist fails but image send works
- All network functions fail
Expected outcome: The affected communication path is narrowed.
If only one destination fails, involve PACS/RIS/IT support for that destination while Clinical Engineering verifies the device-side basics.
Review Error Messages and Queue Status
Have imaging staff show the exact workstation message or DICOM queue status.
Look for errors such as failed association, destination unreachable, connection timeout, rejected study, invalid accession, storage commitment issue, or queue retry failure.
Expected outcome: The error supports either network failure, destination failure, configuration mismatch, or patient/study data mismatch.
Check for Study Demographic or Accession Problems
Verify with imaging staff that patient name, MRN, accession number, exam type, and study date match the expected order.
RIS/PACS failures can occur when the study information does not match the order or destination rules.
Expected outcome: The failure is not caused by incorrect demographics or mismatched order data.
If corrected demographics or order reconciliation allows transfer, confirm the study arrives in PACS and stop.
Confirm Modality Worklist Function
If RIS worklist is the complaint, confirm whether the workstation can query the worklist and whether the expected patient/order appears.
Check whether the issue affects all patients or only one order.
Expected outcome: A single missing order is separated from a full RIS/worklist communication failure.
If only one order is missing, escalate to Radiology IT, scheduling, or RIS support rather than replacing device hardware.
Check Date and Time Consistency
Confirm the workstation date and time appear reasonable and match hospital time closely.
Significant time mismatch can affect authentication, study matching, logs, and communication workflows.
Expected outcome: Communication failure is not being caused by an obvious time/date issue.
If the time is incorrect, follow approved site procedure for correction and retest communication.
Check for Recent Changes
Ask whether anything changed recently, including:
- Network maintenance
- PACS upgrade
- RIS downtime
- IP address change
- Hostname change
- Firewall change
- Workstation software update
- Scanner reboot
- New DICOM destination
- Department move or network jack change
Expected outcome: Recent environmental or configuration changes are identified before suspecting scanner hardware.
Restart Only When Safe and Approved
If the workstation appears frozen or communication services appear stuck, coordinate with imaging staff before restarting any workstation application or system.
Confirm no acquisition, reconstruction, transfer, or patient exam is active.
Expected outcome: A safe restart clears a temporary workstation or application communication issue without risking data loss.
If communication works after restart, verify successful send/worklist/archive operation and document the restart.
Retest the Failed Workflow
Retest the exact failed function with imaging staff.
Examples:
- Query RIS worklist
- Send a completed study to PACS
- Send to archive
- Retry failed DICOM queue item
- Confirm the study appears at the destination
Expected outcome: The original complaint is either resolved or reproducible.
Escalate Based on Failure Pattern
If physical network, workstation responsiveness, study completion, demographics, and basic workflow checks are acceptable, escalate appropriately.
Use this logic:
- No network link: escalate to IT/network support and bench/vendor support if workstation network hardware is suspected.
- All network functions fail: involve IT and Siemens service.
- Only PACS/archive fails: involve PACS administrator and Siemens service as needed.
- Only RIS/worklist fails: involve RIS/Radiology IT and Siemens service as needed.
- Workstation freezes, crashes, or cannot process studies: remove from clinical use and escalate for workstation service.
- DICOM configuration appears incorrect: escalate to Siemens service or approved imaging informatics support.
Expected outcome: The issue is routed to the correct support path without unnecessary hardware replacement.
If the Problem Persists
If the problem persists after external network checks, workstation status checks, study verification, queue review, demographic review, and safe restart, common external causes have been ruled out.
The issue may involve workstation software, DICOM configuration, network interface failure, RIS/PACS configuration, archive server communication, or Siemens application-level service problems.
The Symbia Intevo should be:
- Removed from clinical use if acquisition, processing, or image transfer reliability is affected
- Labeled Out of Service if it cannot safely support patient workflow
- Escalated to Siemens service, PACS/RIS support, and IT/network support as appropriate
- Bench or vendor evaluated before return to service
Knowing when to stop is proper troubleshooting. Clinical Engineering should not perform unauthorized workstation software changes, DICOM configuration edits, or internal system repair beyond approved support procedures.
Clinical Use Tip
Do not troubleshoot communication failures during an active scan unless patient safety requires immediate action. If studies cannot be reliably transferred, move the patient to a backup imaging workflow or alternate approved device path first, and have imaging staff follow the approved downtime or alternate-transfer workflow before continuing patient imaging. Therapy and imaging continuity should be maintained before troubleshooting continues.
Work Order Documentation (CCR Method)
CCR = Complaint, Cause, Resolution
Complaint
What was reported by the clinical staff.
Example:
"Nuclear Medicine reported the Siemens Symbia Intevo acquisition workstation would not send completed SPECT/CT studies to PACS."
Cause
What was observed during troubleshooting.
Example:
"Verified workstation was responsive and study was available locally, but DICOM send queue showed repeated connection failures to the PACS destination while other networked systems were also affected."
Resolution
What action was taken.
Example:
"Confirmed external network cabling was seated, documented PACS communication failure, removed device from routine clinical workflow pending resolution, and escalated to Radiology IT/PACS support and Siemens service."
Helpful Details to Include (If Known)
- Whether patient scan was active or completed
- Exact error message or queue status
- Whether local study opened successfully
- Whether raw, reconstructed, CT, fused, or secondary images were affected
- Whether RIS worklist, PACS send, archive, or all communication failed
- Whether other modalities were affected
- Network cable checked or swapped
- Link/activity lights present or absent
- Workstation restart performed or not performed
- Recent network, PACS, RIS, or software changes
- Accession/MRN/order mismatch found
- Destination affected, such as PACS, archive, RIS, or worklist server
- Alarm behavior, alerts, or workstation messages observed
- Accessories or external cables swapped during troubleshooting
- Power behavior of the workstation and related peripherals
- Environmental factors such as department network outage, jack change, downtime, or PACS/RIS maintenance
- Indicator lights observed at the network port or connected equipment
- Final device status: returned to service, limited use, escalated, or Out of Service
Final Thought
SPECT/CT communication troubleshooting should stay logical and safety-focused. Confirm the patient is safe, verify the study exists locally, check the workstation and network basics, then separate device-side issues from RIS, PACS, archive, or IT problems. Clear CCR documentation helps protect patient care and speeds escalation to the correct support team.
That is successful troubleshooting.