From the July 2019 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine
• Increase transparency with regard to wait times with a queue management system that allows your patients to sign in on a tablet and add themselves to the wait list. A TV screen would then display exactly where each patient is in the queue.
• Invest in a patient portal that allows your patients to not only view the written results, but also view the actual images associated with their tests. This way, the patient can manage how, and with whom, they share their results. Systems like Carestream’s MyVue and Merge’s Honeycomb both offer imaging portals that provide both images and reports to patients.

4. Ensure interoperability
One of the biggest challenges when improving your imaging center’s workflow is understanding the flow of information. The entire imaging cycle is composed of: (1) reviewing the patient data, (2) conducting the imaging exam according to the proper protocols and, (3) processing and analyzing the data in a timely manner.

Just over a decade ago, radiologists were found sorting through X-ray films and documenting patient encounters by hand, with pagers strapped to their belts. Now that patient health records are mainly electronic, shouldn’t things be simpler?

While radiology and image-driven workflows generate tremendous amounts of useful information, it is often stored as unstructured data in the form of PDFs or paragraph text. On its own, this data doesn’t have much worth to radiologists and other physicians, who rely on electronic health records (EHRs) to convey and disseminate information. Ultimately, radiologists are looking for simple, all-in-one EHRs that make their lives easier and allow them to make informed decisions in a fast-paced environment.

Electronic records (EHRs), when closely integrated with your PACS, RIS, and CVIS provide greater accuracy for diagnostic and interventional radiology. This type of integration also provides more meaningful information on patients (including patient history, current medical status, and imaging results from prior studies). When looking to install or update your EHR, it is in your best interest to create an architectural design that accounts for a multivendor, multisystem integration, allowing all of your systems to interact with each other across your practice.

In the hectic pace of today’s healthcare landscape, it’s important to do everything you can to keep your practice or department as efficient as possible, increase productivity, and boost care quality. While these technologies may be a bit pricey in the short term, ultimately, adoption of one, or all, of these technologies is what will make your imaging center stand apart.

Definitive Healthcare is the leading provider of data and intelligence on hospitals, physicians, and other healthcare providers. Its product suite provides the most comprehensive and highest quality data available anywhere on 8,800 hospitals and IDNs; 148,000 physician groups; 1.7 million physicians, nurses, and allied health professionals; 11,200 ambulatory surgery centers; 14,600 imaging centers; 91,600 long-term care facilities; 40,000 clinics; 1,400 ACOs and HIEs; more than 4 billion commercial medical and Rx claims; 115,000 clinical trials; and 900 Canadian hospitals. The company’s data provides its 2,200+ clients with the analytics and insight needed to effectively segment and research the healthcare provider market. Definitive Healthcare is backed by Advent International and Spectrum Equity.

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