Four ways to give your medical imaging revenue a BOOST!
Four ways to give your medical imaging revenue a BOOST! Below are some cost saving ideas specific to medical imaging which may help you maximize your medical imaging revenue.
1. Stop burning CDs! While out for a run a few years ago I tweaked my right knee and was reduced to a hobble for a couple of days. An appointment with the Orthopedic office within my hospital (my employer) turned into an X-Ray and MRI on my knee. One of the Orthopedic Physician Assistants (PA) reviewed my imaging and radiologist report, talked with me about the injury and recommended time and ice - which worked! My experience was pretty typical.
I asked the PA helping me for my radiology images and reports on CD so I could take them home with me. I was astonished at the amount of staff resource time required to fulfill this request. The PA who helped me referred me to the front desk staff as he was not sure how the request could be completed. The front desk staff complained they no longer had the capability to burn patient CDs directly, so they referred me to the PACS Administrator. The PACS Administrator was away from his desk but did get back to me the next day. Three days later, I found a blank white envelope containing a CD-R with my name hand-written upon it in black sharpie scribble. I caught the PACS Administrator in the hallway later that day and asked him if that is the same experience for patients who don't actually work at the hospital. He told me it's even worse - those patients have to come back to the hospital again and pick the CD up! Unfortunately, this is pretty common across the medical imaging world.
Fortunately, there is a solution! IMSI PatientCONNECT™ is an innovative idea from the engineers at IMSI which can eliminate CD burning for imaging centers.
PatientCONNECT™ provides patients with a small credit-card size card which can be scanned by their smartphone, tablet or PC. Scanning the PatientCONNECT™ card with a smartphone, tablet or PC will open your facility's portal, prompt the patient to create a password for security, then allow the patient to access images, reports and other medical data.
IMSI PatientCONNECT™ is easy to use, works on virtually any device and can be expanded to include patient check-in, screening forms, registration, and more. IMSI PatientCONNECT™ integrates with and compliments virtually any EMR, PACS or clinical system.
No more CD burning. No more sharpie markers. No more delays.
Increase patient engagement, patient satisfaction and your facility reputation today!
For more information, check out the IMSI PatientCONNECT™ solution at http://www.imsimed.com/patientconnect
2. Lower your PACS and IT costs For the small and mid-size hospitals and imaging centers, spending $200k to $500k on a new PACS solution over a 5-year term used to be typical. Considerations for storage, features (e.g. 3D, Mammo, Cardio, specialties), infrastructure (eg. server room, networks), interfacing (e.g. HL7, RIS, FHIR), users (client, concurrent, web-based, quantity) and other options pushed pricing even higher. Some large hospital and multi-facility PACS implementations I’ve managed easily exceeded the $1M mark. Competition in the PACS market today combined with cloud-based model offerings has driven PACS pricing down… way down. A modern PACS solution for mid-size hospitals and imaging centers over a 5-year term can now be had for under $100k. While costs for storage, interfacing and options have also dropped, the biggest cost and risk benefits can be realized through cloud-based PACS solutions. In cloud-based PACS models, many common headaches are eliminated. Infrastructure, HIPPA / HITECH requirements, web-access, device compatibility and numerous IT personnel are no longer issues with cloud-based PACS solutions. Further, your Cloud PACS vendor can take on the PACS Administrator role and provide most or all PACS Administration - requiring less IT resources on your part. If you already have an expensive PACS solution, most onsite and cloud PACS vendors today will migrate your existing PACS data to their platform at very reasonable rates. Some vendors even provide a copy of your data at your site to avoid the perception of “lost data control”. Be sure to negotiate the PACS data migration costs from the start of your negotiation with a cloud PACS vendor, this will help you obtain the best pricing. If you need help in reducing your technology costs and risk barriers to increase your medical imaging revenue, contact me via email or phone to get started.
Learn more about IMSI PACS and Cloud PACS solutions at www.imsimed.com/ris-pacs
3. Use the technology to your advantage Working with large and small medical imaging providers across the United States for over twenty years, I’ve seen some commonalities. One common thread is the struggle of building and managing a quality and reliable reading radiologist team. According to an RSNA study published in 2016, the supply for radiologist resources is not dramatically increasing and has both regional and annual variability (RSNA, 2016). Shopping for quality and reliable radiologists is no easy task, but the latest teleradiology and telehealth platforms create awesome options for the imaging center.
For example, imaging centers using our TeleRAD360 platform have the power to choose from the many reading radiologists and teams already using utilizing the TeleRAD360 platform. Adding or removing individual or groups of reading physicians to a client imaging center is easy and allows the imaging center to quickly increase their reading physician “horsepower” as needed.
Leveraging the right technology can provide your imaging center with powerful options, capabilities and choice.
Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). (2016). Retrieved from http://pubs.rsna.org/doi/abs/10.1148/radiol.2015150921. Accessed 20 July 2017.
4. Update your speech / voice recognition and save money If you are using client PC-based voice recognition, you are losing money. The traditional on-premise, PC-based implementation of voice recognition software is archaic and replaced by powerful cloud-based speech recognition solutions which are constantly improved for accuracy, functionality and work with any EMR or clinical reporting system.
As we experienced the typical issues with on-premise speech recognition costs, updates and compatibility, IMSI started offering cloud-based speech recognition to radiologists back in 2010. Our cloud-based speech recognition solution has grown to be extremely accurate and robust with features. Our cloud-based speech recognition clients now include all hospital departments and specialities (radiology, cardiology, emergency dept, surgery, gastroenterology, general medicine and many more). While working as a hospital CIO, I was surprised at the cost to implement speech recognition organization wide. In addition to the $80,000+ investment for the on-premise server solution which would last only five years before needing a serious update or replacement, on-boarding for physicians was approximately $2,000. each. Additional training costs and compatibility issues with the different clinician devices was constant. The overall solution was a constant drain on my budget.
Cloud-based speech recognition solutions of today can be used with any clinical system (eg. PACS, EMR, etc.) while eliminating all on-premise server costs and compatibility headaches for under $100. per month, per user. That’s a “no-brainer” for me. The mobility and “anywhere access" for the cloud-based speech recognition solutions give clinicians the freedom to work anywhere. Leveraging the right technology at your facility can provide you with strategic options, capabilities, and BIG savings!
To learn more about cloud-based speech recognition, visit us at www.imsimed.com/voice or call 800-220-XRAY today.
About the author: Geoff Mazur has been immersed in healthcare IT with particular focus on EMR, RIS and PACS for over twenty years: Ten years with a RIS / PACS vendor, six years traveling the United States as an EMR, PACS and RIS implementation consultant, five years as a hospital executive IT director and now back on the vendor side with IMSI. Geoff specializes in helping large and small healthcare facilities implement IT solutions properly and spend IT dollars wisely.
