Facility Management

If you don’t want radiology to become a commodity, just connect. That’s the advice Larry Muroff, MD, CEO and President of Imaging Consultants, Tampa, delivered at RSNA 2011.

CHICAGO - Traditionally, many radiologists have worked behind the scenes, not directly with patients. But the field can’t stay hidden if it wants to survive in its current form, she and others are convinced. Radiology can either become more personal or become a commodity.

CHICAGO - Radiology is still a great career, but students need to learn more about the opportunities and realities.

CHICAGO - You can't improve what you don't measure, says Paul Chang in this video clip from RSNA 2011. He thinks radiology practices should follow other businesses and adopt business analytics and key perfromance indicators. How else can you tell if you are adding quality and improving processes?

CHICAGO - Worried your private radiology practice will get swallowed up by a hospital? Perhaps there’s little need to fret. The hospital employment trend sweeping your primary care colleagues hasn’t - and likely won’t - hit radiology. That’s according to Shay Pratt, managing director with the Advisory Board Company, who spoke at an RSNA session Tuesday.

CHICAGO - Passing compact discs full of diagnostic images from institutions to patients and back will soon seem as archaic as “sneakernet” file transfer by floppy disk. That, at least, is the hope of the people behind RSNA Image Share, a $4.7 million initiative funded through the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) that was presented at RSNA Tuesday.

In the age of healthcare reform, boosting patient satisfaction with the services you provide is critical to reimbursement. Many of you have purchased open or wide-bore MRI machines with higher Tesla strength to make your claustrophobic patients more comfortable. Or maybe you’ve added a scanner just for children. But your imaging technology is only part of the fix, according to some in the industry.

A big buzzword in radiology currently is patient experience. Many practices have invested in updated machines and staff training to make sure the imaging process goes as smoothly for your patients as possible.

vRad's cloud-based teleradiology alliance model helps radiologists stay put, perform faster services, access subspecialists more easily.

Radiologists order just 5.3 percent of high-cost imaging examinations, according to a study published online on Nov. 14 in the journal Radiology.

In this podcast, Tom Gentile, president and CEO at GE Healthcare Systems, explains that “the whole focus of imaging is moving beyond the quality of the image.” Patient care, physician productivity and reimbursement take on a renewed focus in light of healthcare reform efforts internationally, he says.

Medical imaging managers reported low confidence that reimbursement rates will improve and that funding for capital purchase for equipment and IT will be available in the fourth quarter of 2011 (October to December).

Radiologists and imaging groups should discuss with their IT vendors the plans and strategies for certifying their technology under the federal meaningful use program, said Keith Dreyer, DO, PhD, vice chair of radiology informatics at Massachusetts General Hospital, speaking Thursday at the American College of Radiology’s inaugural Imaging Informatics Summit in Washington, D.C.

OK, so saving the planet’s not quite as simple as turning off your computer. But radiologists can cut electricity use and save their practices money with judicious use of a workstation’s and monitor’s “off” switch when wrapping up for the day. That’s according to common sense - as well as a study in the November issue of the Journal of the American College of Radiology.

If you’ve seen fewer and fewer physicians referring patients to your center for imaging services over the past five years, you’re not alone. The decline is a nationwide trend, and many industry consultants believe that to fortify your bottom line, you must go on the offensive.

Nonradiologist physicians with a financial interest in imaging means were as much as 49 percent more likely to order imaging as those with no financial interest, according to a new study published in the American Journal of Roentgenology.

What opinion do others have about you today? Have you ever solicited feedback from colleagues or can you honestly take stock in adjectives that accurately reflect who you are?

Prior authorization programs to control medical imaging utilization could wind up costing the government money and increase administrative burden, according to a review by The Moran Company released this week by the Access to Medical Imaging Coalition.

Nearly a quarter of radiologists use smartphones and mobile devices in their medical practice, according to a recent report from physician recruitment firm Jackson & Coker. Do you?

The Blue Cross Blue Shield Association plan unveiled last week that touches on advanced imaging services has industry leaders up-in-arms, calling for Congress to leave plan-of-care decisions between doctors and their patients.

Diagnostic Imaging spoke with Dr. Johnsey Leef III, a radiologist with Charleston Area Medical Center in Charleston, WV, about how the industry is responding to the call for lower dose imaging and what his department is doing to address the issue.

Diagnostic Imaging reached out to Taylor Moorehead, regional partner, West region at Zotec Partners, a medical billing, practice management, and Radiology Information Systems software company, to discuss the impact of Radiology Benefit Managers and technology aimed at helping practices deal with the demands.

Virtual Radiologic’s 2010 purchase of NightHawk, a national teleradiology practice, has come at a cost, at least short-term, according to research from KLAS.

Social networking in healthcare isn’t new, but there is a growing trend to create groups focused on particular specialty areas. And radiology is in the middle of it all, with networks bringing together physicians and technologists alike.