How Integrated Reading Rooms can Improve Care Quality

Medical imaging can have numerous benefits when it comes to treating patients with various conditions and injuries. The interpretations provided by radiologists can help guide the care being delivered by physicians to their patients. This is especially true when using new and updated technology, such as low-dose Digital Radiography Equipment.

A team of researchers from New York University set out to examine how much more value radiologists could bring to medical practices by integrating onsite reading rooms in the clinic. Led by Andrew Rosenkrantz, M.D., the researchers assessed the impact radiologists would have at the Urologic Oncology clinic at the NYU Langone Medical Center.

Published in the Journal of the American College of Radiology, radiologists participated in more than 100 imaging consultations with a variety of cases. Afterward, the clinicians filled out a survey to express their reactions to the reading room within their facility.

“Ultimately, we are demonstrating a fairly simple operational initiative that had clear benefit to our referring clinicians and patients,” Rosenkrantz said in a statement to AuntMinnie.com.

Close proximity Imaging
Rosenkrantz and his team wanted to determine how effective Integrated Reading Rooms would be at their own institution, and ultimately use it as a model for other facilities around the country. Collaborating between the radiological and urological clinicians, the room was placed within 10 feet of the physicians’ office where staff would review electronic medical records. Working in three-hour shifts, the room was managed by one of six abdominal radiologists who were available for onsite consultations.

Throughout the five-month period of the study, a log was kept of all the visits to the clinic for imaging studies. The radiologists, in addition to the consultations, also provided interpretations on scans that already existed within the facility’s PACS. According to the researchers, before the implementation of the integrated reading room, the radiologists were unable to communicate with physicians in real-time because a majority of the images were not available on the institution’s system.

Success in collaboration
The results from the study conveyed the numerous benefits of having an onsite Radiologists within the practice. Over the study’s five months, the Radiologists averaged 1.8 consultations during their three-hour shifts, with a range of zero to eight visits per day. Out of the 102 consultations, more than half were for outside images being brought in on memory drives by patients. An additional 43 percent were to discuss existing internal images found in the clinic’s software.

The onsite reading room allows radiologists and clinicians to coordinate collaborative face-to-face interactions with patients. Additionally, bringing these physicians together helps reduce the amount of repeated procedures, saving money and time as well as decreasing radiation exposure for patients.

It also was noted that the oncologists felt that the onsite radiologists were beneficial in more than 90 percent of the cases they consulted on.

“There were tendencies to view consultations as affecting patient management in most cases, to be more likely to seek consultation for outside studies when the radiologist was onsite, and to be less likely to reorder such imaging when the radiologist was onsite,” wrote the authors in their study.

According to the American College of Radiology, there are numerous ways that radiologists can effectively communicate with clinicians. By integrating their services into one practice, patients can experience tremendous benefits from their coordinated efforts. Both professionals can engage in personal conversations with patients that properly convey treatment strategies and at-home after care options as well.

Adding value to Radiology
In addition to the advent of improved Diagnostic Imaging equipment, implementing an integrated reading room can bring more value to radiology. It served as evidence that radiologists can do more as healthcare providers than capture and interpret images. They can contribute to care beyond interpretation and interact collaboratively with patients and physicians.

Additionally, the ACR has released its Imaging 3.0 campaign to change the field of radiology and bring more value to its services. The shift from quantity to quality-based care means that radiologists need to become more involved in the overall process of treatment, both before and after care.

The purpose of Imaging 3.0 is to get radiologists to take on a bigger leadership role in reshaping and improving the American healthcare system. The ACR website has an abundance of learning modules and materials for radiologists to review, with the intention of them passing on the useful information to their colleagues. The downloadable files are meant to be shared with peers in a collaborative effort to improve and expand the radiologist role in healthcare.

According to Rosenkrantz, their findings have resulted in more integrated reading rooms being set up with other departments at the Langone Medical Center. Radiologists continue to help improve the quality of health care through their digital imaging expertise and valued interpretations on patient conditions.

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