Radiology Management

* The Kanal Method is a scientific method of focusing and standardizing efforts in MR safety as it applies to each specific patient. Its value, along with the Ameri- can Board of Magnetic Resonance Safety (ABMRS) and the Magnetic Resonance Safety Officer (MRSO), Magnetic Resonance Medical Director (MRMD), Magnetic Resonance Safety Expert (MRSE)- board certifications, is demonstrated and in practice. * People learn the Kanal Method in the MRSO/ MRMD/ MRSE courses. Such certification helps to ensure a standard knowledge base and competency among those overseeing departmen- tal, organizational, and/or enterprise MR safety...

*The changing climate in healthcare has led to some very hard decisions regarding revenue generation and cost avoidance. A decision was made to not allow the nephrologists to perform renal biopsies utilizing interventional radiology resources that had previously been available. *For nephrologists that wanted to continue performing their own biopsies, the plan was to redesign how they were performed using only an ultrasound technologist in the room. *The sonographers had never been required to perform any invasive proce- dure at this facility, and would be required to obtain skills and competencies in a short period of time for this to be successful...

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It is important to remain current on the latest edit and modifier guidelines from the AMA, CMS, and your contracted payors. Failure to use modifiers correctly can result in under- or overpayments and can put a provider at risk of penalties. Also, since payors vary in how they adjudicate claims with modifiers, it is important to monitor payments for claims with modifiers to make certain you are being paid correctly.

The University of Maryland Medical Center's goal was to improve the safety and comfort of pediatric imaging by enhancing the experience for children. Two pediatric radiologists and two child life specialists worked together to create a training program to help guide radiology technologists on how to approach and interact with children undergoing medical imaging. The results of surveys administered to technologists and parents or caregivers helped refine the strategy for both creating training sessions for technologists and reading materials for children and their parents to optimally prepare for the procedures...

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This initiative utilized a collaborative learning approach to increase knowledge and experience in process improvement and systems thinking while targeting improved patient flow in seven radiology modalities. Teams showed improvements in their project metrics and collectively streamlined the flow for 530 patients per day by improving patient lead time, wait time, and first case on-time start rates. In a post-project survey of 50 project team members, 82% stated they had more effective solutions as a result of the process improvement methodology, 84% stated they will be able to utilize the process improvement tools again in the future, and 98% would recommend participating in another project to a colleague...

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The concept of observation--going out and seeing what is happening in daily operations---would seem like a normal management activity, but the reality in practice of the philosophy and technique is often underutilized. Once an observation has been determined, the next steps are to test and validate any discoveries on paper. For process change to be implemented, numerical data is needed to back-up observations in order to be heard and taken seriously by the executive team. Boca Raton Regional Hospital saw an opportunity to improve the process for radiopharmaceutical standing orders within its nuclear imaging department...

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Business intelligence (BI) is a worthwhile investment, and will play a significant role in hospital management in the near future. Implementation of BI is challenging and requires resources, skills, and a strategy, but enables management to have easy access to relevant analysis of data and visualization of important key performance indicators (KPI). Modern BI applications will help to overcome shortages of common "hand-made" analysis, save time and money, and will enable even managers to do "self-service" analysis and reporting...