Health Imaging & IT - January 2008 - (Page 43)

case, they have someone from IOC with neuroradiology expertise to rely on. “The main value [to that] is peace of mind for the people in my practice,” he says. “We know that we won’t be put on the spot in an uncomfortable situation, having to make a serious decision when we are not subspecialty trained in that area. If you have a body CT [radiologist] on call and he or she is put in the difficult position of making a decision on whether a child goes to the OR for a head or neck or neuropathology case, it is nice to know that that there is a subspecialty neuroradiologist available who can provide report within 30 minutes, depending on the study. It is that peace of mind that you can provide quality services around the clock.” Staying ahead of the competition The reason PremiereScan, a privately-owned single-center imaging facility in San Jose, Calif., chose teleradiology provider Virtual Radiologic for subspecialty expertise in virtual colonoscopy 24/7 was to gain a competitive position in the market. “We are a physician referral-based company and we noticed other imaging centers were offering virtual colonoscopy,” said Sheila Galuppo, sales and marketing director at PremiereScan. “It has the support of [clinical] studies, the medical community and the technology has improved so much over the next few years that virtual colonoscopy is going to become more mainstream, which is why we wanted to offer our community an expert on the subject.” Galuppo says that the Minneapolis-based teleradiology provider gives the company exclusive access to one subspecialty, fellowship-trained radiologist for virtual colonoscopy—which sets them apart from local imaging centers offering the service. “Offering exclusive subspecialty expertise makes us very marketable because we are providing a service that may not be provided by a center down the street,” Galuppo says. The demand for quality care Black Hills Surgery Center in Rapid City, S.D., is a 26-bed specialty hospital with sevHealthImaging.com en operating rooms that offers state-of-theart imaging services including 3T MRI and 64-slice CT. With 10 radiologists on staff for a department that performs approximately 6,000 to 7,000 imaging studies per year, the center uses subspecialty radiologists from ProScan to deliver high-quality reads to its providers, says William May, CEO and general counsel for the center. “We rely on subspecialty radiologists to have specific expertise in the imaging that our referring providers are requesting,” he says. “For quality subspecialty interpretation and quick report turn-around that is important to us.” May says that turn-around time for subspecialty reads depends on how a study is categorized. “It’s typically 24 hours for a routine read; if you want to do a STAT read it’s 6 to 8 minutes; a wet read is usually called back within 10 to15 minutes from the time they receive the interpretation. If any provider has questions about the study, the ProScan radiologist will get on the phone within a matter of minutes, if necessary,” he says. That is the biggest beneﬁt [subspecialty remote reading] has provided–getting subspecialty expertise out here in western South Dakota. William May, CEO and general counsel, Black Hills Surgery Center, Rapid City, S.D. example, we do a lot of orthopedic procedures at our hospital and we find the subspecialty trained radiologists at ProScan have specific expertise in bone and joint disorders as well as in the spine to provide quality reporting.” “The main value-added benefit for us is that we live in western South Dakota with close to 100,000 people, which is big for South Dakota, but is not big for a lot of other places in the country. Through teleradiology, we are able to get some of the most highlytrained radiologists in the world to read our interpretations,” says Mays. “That is the biggest benefit it has provided—getting subspecialty expertise out here in western South Dakota. We think that adds a lot of benefit in terms of the quality of care we provide.” Since quality was the main driver for making the move to teleradiology, May says it was important to interview several different organizations before choosing ProScan. “By traveling to the company’s locations, interviewing staff and customers, we were able to get a sense of how each vendor performed. After much research and much discussion, we went with ProScan because we thought they would be able to provide us with the optimal mix of For anyone considering subspecialty reading services, May says it is important to do some field research. “Make sure you have an opportunity to go to their city, see where they work and meet as many radiologists as you can. Try to get a handle on what their customer service philosophy is, find out what their turn-around times are and how often they hit their turn-around times—in other words, are they consistently delivering on their promises? And of course, interview other clients of the firm to determine their level of satisfaction by asking tough questions about how things work and how responsive the company was in fixing any problems,” he says. conclusion As subspecialty reading services continue to gain in popularity and acceptance in response to the increasing demands from specifically trained radiologists, many hospitals and imaging centers are looking to remote reading and teleradiology providers to provide quality, in-depth expertise on their terms. Whether a radiologist is on-site or in another state will not be an issue when the focus is on competency, quality and availability. January 2008 | Health Imaging & IT 43 http://HealthImaging.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Health Imaging & IT - January 2008

Health Imaging & IT Table of Contents On the Web The Enterprise: Is More Better? News Update A Look Inside Next-Generation Multidetector CT Convention Spotlight: RSNA in Review RIS/PACS in the Imaging Center Sweden: A Study in Mammography Excellence The Votes are in: Yea for Speech in U.S. Capital & Beyond Subspecialty Reading Services: Quality Reads, Peace of Mind, 24/7 Enterprise Lung CAD Eases Workflow Advertisers Index Company Index Coming Soon Stat Sheet

Health Imaging & IT - January 2008

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