How to Minimize Radiology Turnaround Time
Radiology turnaround time should be reduced, as the referring physician depends on the radiology report to provide the right treatment at the right time.
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Radiology plays a very crucial role in today’s healthcare environment. A healthcare organization’s overall efficiency is very much dependent on the ability of the radiology department to provide excellent service to referring physicians. This makes radiology transcription provided by medical transcription service providers also very significant from the point of view of speedy documentation. A quick radiology report turnaround time (TAT) can make radiology better, stronger, and faster than before. Turnaround time is the amount of time it takes a radiologist to read a study and return his or her findings to a referring physician. Turnaround times in radiology can vary. For instance, some tests such as chest X-rays for pneumonia and CT scans for brain bleeds may take longer to read. Even so, turnaround time is being increasingly used as a way to measure the quality of radiology services. In a 2013 Imaging Performance Partnership TAT survey, the participating hospitals, imaging centers, children’s hospitals, academic medical centers, hospitals and practice leaders said that efficient TAT is among their highest priorities. Many tools are available nowadays to minimize TATs. Medical transcription outsourcing companies can help in this regard, by making radiology reports available as quickly as possible. Turnaround Times of Academic Medical Centers According to several existing studies, the golden TAT number is one hour for much of the industry. Private practices can successfully achieve that goal, as they focus only on reading reports. With workflow strategy tweaks and advanced technologies, these groups can potentially drive TATs down to 30 minutes. But in the case of academic medical centers, they will have longer TATs than private practices, as they have to spend more time to go through the residents’ review studies, give feedback and provide a second read. These institutions have to consider their teaching responsibilities to radiology residents when designing institutional TAT standards. Academic administrators have to work hard to increase the throughput of cases without compromising the quality of resident studies. In order to cut short the TATs, some medical centers have limited the number of ED cases the residents participate in. They currently use iPads to make it simple for providers to sign-off on cases dictated by residents in a timelier manner and also assign one physician on each shift for signing off on all ED cases.
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Factors Contributing to Achieving Quick Turnaround Times An efficient RIS/PACS solution with closely integrated tools, such as speech, intelligent display protocols, 3D visualization, and other clinical applications is necessary for achieving quick report turnaround times.
Data mining is another key factor for improving the
efficiency, which enables bottlenecks to be identified and the effect of implemented changes to be measured. Careful evaluation of workflow and activities of the department or practice also helps to identify the changes that could contribute to lowering TAT. Things to be Given Due Consideration for Reducing TAT
Paper-based functions that cause delay should be identified.
Standard hanging protocols should be created for a variety of reading situations.
Data supporting investment in new hardware, software or personnel must be collected.
Physicians should be properly trained to use the systems to efficiently organize and share images, teaching files and reference case information.
Ensure that the image viewing and storage systems can support increasing workloads.
In order to improve the image quality and TAT, 3D reconstruction software should be upgraded.
PACS administration and RIS administration responsibilities should be separated for potential time savings.
By utilizing reliable dictation devices, the right technology, integrating EHR (Electronic Health Record) and engaging well-trained dedicated staff, HIPAA-compliant medical transcription companies ensure prompt delivery of radiology reports. This will also help significantly in reducing the overall turnaround time for radiology.
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(800) 670 2809