CHICAGO – Healthcare organizations are under the gun to increase efficiency and optimize investments in radiological systems, as cuts implemented this year in Medicare reimbursement for outpatient diagnostic services appear to be here to stay.
Attendees at the recent annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America touted information systems and a variety of diverse services as approaches to help providers improve workflow, increase efficiency and make the most of expensive investments in radiological equipment.
Vendors also are working toward tighter integration with electronic medical records and other media to maximize returns on those technologies and improve data sharing.
Medicare reimbursement for outpatient diagnostic radiology procedures has been reduced since Jan.1, 2007, as a result of requirements of the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005. To maintain revenue levels, providers are trying to increase volume, said Joseph Maune, business manager for healthcare information solutions for Carestream Health of Rochester, N.Y.
One way to achieve that is to tie radiology information systems with picture archiving and communication systems, he said. Carestream products offer options to improve communications with referring physicians and others involved in radiological procedures, including using e-mail and text messaging.
Kansas City, Mo.-based Cerner Corp. is finding more interest among providers in its MultiMedia Foundation, which aims to increase efficiency by putting a variety of multimedia data in a repository for integrated and easy access.
“All types of multimedia (are) being captured today,” said Dave Duello of Cerner. “A lot of clients’ experience is that there are silos of this information in their organizations.”
Having information all in one place speeds physician interactions with an organization, and that builds physician relationships, said Jennifer Hussey, divisional director of imaging for Our Lady of the Lake Hospital in Baton Rouge, La.
On average, a physician spends one hour of each day gathering test results or radiological images, she said. Improved access to images and radiological reports “allows the physician to spend more time at the patient’s bedside,” she added.
Integrated access to radiology information also improves workflow, which results in more patient safety, Hussey said. “From the radiologist’s perspective, the efficiency of PACS allows more time to be patient-focused,” she said.
Providers are investigating other ways to increase radiologists’ efficiency and maximize throughput. For example, Dallas-based BRIT Systems is offering an approach that enables physician reading groups to share patients’ images to take advantage of radiologists’ available capacity.
In addition, Milwaukee-based Merge Healthcare is premiering an approach called Merge TeleRead, which uses offshore radiologists to do a consult pre-read of radiological tests. To be offered to existing Merge customers, the approach will enable radiologists in India to do preliminary work on tests.
The hospitals’ radiologists would do final reads and handle cases requiring their specific expertise, and it would enable a facility’s radiological staff to delegate routine work and handle more diagnostic tests, said Gary Bowers, president of Merge Healthcare North America.
Nighthawk Radiology of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, building off its base of providing radiological reading services around the clock to support radiology departments, is now offering assistance for handling work-intensive test sets such as cardiac computed tomography tests, said Nighthawk’s Kent Thomas.
Nighthawk’s “supertechs” can take 4,000 images derived from a CT scan of the heart, provide volumetric three-dimensional renderings and return 500 to 600 of the most important images for review by a radiologist at the originating hospital, he said.