It has been a decade since the Triple Aim for Healthcare — better patient care, improved population health and reduced costs — developed by the Institute Improvement for Healthcare was accepted as the guide to measure the performance of healthcare facilities. Healthcare providers have been trying to align their practices to this guide by purchasing “advanced” piecemeal software in the hopes of improving outcomes. Unfortunately, the inefficiencies of using too many software systems have resulted in workload burnout among clinicians and staff. Therefore, the healthcare industry is now focused on including a fourth aim — improving work-life of healthcare providers. This holistic approach towards measuring performance is definitely a step in the right direction, but where does one begin?
The first step is to zoom out and look at the complete imaging life-cycle. “The clock doesn’t start and stop in the radiology department,” said Paul Chang, M.D., Professor and Vice-chairman of Radiology Informatics, Medical Director of Pathology Informatics, University of Chicago Hospitals. “It starts when the physician first decides that imaging might contribute to patient care and only ends when that same physician gets the report. What good is it to have a patient scanned in two seconds if I don’t read the study for four hours?” (Source)
In our 25+ years of experience of understanding the industry’s pain points as well as developing and implementing RIS/PACS solutions, we at RamSoft believe that building a successful Radiology practice starts with laying a strong foundation that will automate and optimize your workflow.
Here are the 5 must-haves for a Successful Radiology practice:
- A complete RIS/PACS with one user interface: While RIS and PACS solutions are usually found as stand-alone software, we strongly recommend a single database RIS/PACS solution to make employee onboarding easier and efficient. Training new hires and having all end-users toggle through one system is a dream come true for staff as they can get work done faster.
- Workflow Automation Tools: While the obvious outcome of automation is the time saved, the benefits are endless. Automating as many steps as possible eliminate manual entry errors, reduces the workload on clinicians, improves patient turn-around times.
- Diagnostic Reporting Tools: Having the right diagnostic reporting tools, toggling through images while dictating or using voice recognition is a major time saver for Radiologists. This in return increases productivity by allowing Radiologists to diagnose patients faster.
- Easy access to images and reports: Referring physicians get access to patient reports and images in real-time. This means quicker patient turn-around times. Give patients access to images and reports. This allows patients to feel empowered and in control of their health situation.
- Data Analytics: A build-in business intelligence module is key to achieve your business goals. For example, RamSoft’s Essence™ smartly analyzes your data and pin-points the issues in your workflow. This enables you to make the right decisions to streamline your workflow, improve patient turnaround times & patient satisfaction, increase referrals, and maximize your ROI.
To learn more about how RamSoft can take your practice to the next level, Book a Demo today!
