White Papers
The white papers listed below are available for download.
- Creating a New Standard in Radiology
Radiology has been a forgotten outlier in the growing discussions around reducing healthcare costs and improving quality of care. However, it is a very strategic and growing part of healthcare, and its role will become even more important as providers embrace shared risk delivery models. Health systems and their hospitals must adopt a new standard for radiology – enabled by scale and technology and based on a common set of performance standards – so they are better positioned to reduce clinical variation and lower costs while delivering better and safer care.
- A New Methodology for Evaluating Radiologist Error Rates
Radisphere conducted an extensive analysis of error rates that resulted in the development of a new methodology for evaluating radiologist error rates based on the complexity rating of the study and potential for significant pathology. This white paper highlights the study findings, the methodology we use to evaluate radiologists and uniformly assess the quality of radiology services, and how to avoid future errors.
- Ten Best Practices for Remodeling Radiology
Pressure for health systems to provide high-quality, safe and cost-effective care is only going to grow in the coming years. Everyone in the healthcare continuum — including radiology providers — must act as transparent, accountable partners in order to provide the best patient care. Hospitals and medical centers can meet these growing demands by adopting a systematic approach guided by a clear set of benchmarks.
- Driving Value in Radiology Services: Demystifying the Economics of Radiology
Hospital executives face significant complexities navigating the uncertainty of today’s healthcare environment. The vast majority of hospitals rely on an antiquated radiology delivery model, driven by local groups who lack the scalability needed to provide cost effective access to a broad range of subspecialists and the infrastructure necessary to deliver consistent, high-quality care 24x7x365. Hospitals that optimize their radiology delivery with scalable access to subspecialty coverage and consistently high quality services are best positioned to realize significant economic and clinical value from their radiology services. Tangible benefits include: reduction in subsides, outpatient imaging growth, and a reduction in inpatient and ED length of stay.
- Diagnostic Accuracy in Radiology: Defining a Literature-Based Benchmark
Every physician makes diagnostic errors in treating patients, and well-trained radiologists are not exempt from mistakes. Determining the expected prevalence of errors, or a so-called "acceptable" error rate, is a difficult task because there are strong disincentives for error reporting. Outside of mammography, there are no agree-upon industry standards establishing desirable goals for diagnostic accuracy or consistent frameworks established for how to measure errors in interpretation. This paper highlights our research into documented error rates and establishes a benchmark standard for interpretive accuracy.
- Improving Radiology Revenue Opportunities for Community Hospitals Through Higher Quality Service Levels
Radiology must be seen as a center of excellence before any profitability considerations can enter into the equation. Revenue from radiology is, by far, the largest of the outpatient service line contributors to a hospital’s bottom line. It dwarfs its nearest competitor—cardiology—by nearly three times. This profit source is also a major reason why diagnostic imaging departments have attracted large capital investments from their hospital’s executive suite to fund CT, MR and PET purchases over the last decade. This white paper examines how higher quality radiology drives hospital economics.
- Using Technology and Telemedicine to Improve Radiology in Small Hospitals
The macro-environment in healthcare is rapidly evolving in recognition of the unsustainable rise in healthcare costs. Critical Access hospitals, acute care facilities with fewer than 100 beds, and, in particular, those located in rural communities, face significant challenges in responding to these changes. However, small and rural hospitals can survive in this difficult environment by focusing on a core competency - excelling as connectors of networked care between the local community and more specialized care. In order to do so, hospitals must optimize the delivery of their core services to achieve higher levels of quality at a lower cost.