From the July 2015 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine
A worse outcome is if the tech takes the wrong images and the radiologist is led to make a misdiagnosis — that would be huge. One more rare possibility is being sued for malpractice because a patient received an unnecessarily high radiation dose during a CT scan. Scans performed with outdated protocols often deliver much higher radiation doses than scans performed with the latest dose-reduction protocols and software.
HCBN: What’s the most frequent problem, of the ones you mentioned?
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SB: Any tech or radiologist will be familiar with the flurry of communication before a scan — that’s certainly the most frequent issue. The next would probably be the problem of the unnecessary callback. There may be on-the-spot recognition that a scan didn’t follow protocol and has to be redone, and that screws up throughput and scheduling. But if the mistake isn’t caught until the radiologist reviews the image, and the patient has to be called back into the clinic, the hassle and cost of rescheduling is considerable. Callbacks in rural areas, where the imaging machines are few and far between, are really burdensome.
I mean, imagine telling someone who drove for three or four hours to get here, “we messed up the protocol, so you’re going to have to come back again. ”The expense and the anxiety is a real problem — and it affects the clinic, too, in terms of patient satisfaction scores as well as disrupting patients’ lives.
HCBN: So what’s a better way of organizing this information?
SB: The solution is the development of a protocol management system that centralizes all of the updated protocols, as well as specific images for comparison, and then gives techs access to these from anywhere across the facility or organization — the current protocols can be accessed via a cell phone, iPad, or any other wireless device. This is immediately helpful for the front-line radiologists and the people doing the scans. Ideally the system would link protocols to data analytics, though, so you can plan the test, do the test, but also do quality assurance on the test. It gives full control over the whole process of imaging — something that is of interest to administrators as well as techs.
HCBN: Why does that control matter to administrators?
SB: Well, they can identify inefficiencies and see exactly where they’re losing money. They can see which exams aren’t getting reimbursed, and how much money they’re leaving on the table. A well-designed system would also identify team members who are doing scans incorrectly or deviating from the protocol. Maybe it’s an individual who needs help, or maybe the protocol is wrong. That helps you with training, but also with reporting. When The Joint Commission comes in to check on whether your protocols are up to date, you have the proof right there.
