Two Key Solutions to Building a High-Value Radiology Program

In radiology, flexibility drives efficiency, and efficiency drives the overall value of care.

Without flexibility, facilities large and small can encounter hurdles to delivering high-quality care and reducing healthcare costs.

Radiology teams at smaller healthcare facilities can often lack the support of a full suite of subspecialized radiologists. It isn’t uncommon for such a facility or system to have multiple contracts for radiology-related services, causing a rigid, imbalanced workflow. These contracts may include radiology groups, “nighthawk” services to cover the times at which the radiology group is unavailable, and transcription services, just to name a few.

On the other hand, a larger facility with a full suite of subspecialists may experience lulls in demand for subspecialized reads. This leaves the subspecialists tasked with generalized work that doesn’t require their expertise, which can contribute to burnout. In addition, hospital-based operational concerns can limit the effectiveness of on-site radiologists, causing excessive study repeat rates, poor throughput and unhappy patients.

To consistently provide high-value radiology services, facilities of all sizes must be nimble enough to meet imaging demands without sacrificing quality. The solutions: an optimized radiology team and refined case routing.

See how an evolved radiology model can be the solution—regardless of facility size.

Optimizing your radiology team means striking a coverage balance by pairing an on-site team with teleradiology support, but that balance also requires a refined protocol for case routing to ensure that individual reads are performed by the most qualified specialists. Together, these solutions make reads timelier and more accurate, improving overall quality and patient experience—two key drivers of care value.

Envision Physician Services’ distributed radiology model provides both of these solutions. With a team of more than 1,250 radiologists, our distributed model pairs on-site radiologists and a dedicated medical director with a comprehensive network of off-site subspecialists. In addition, we refine case routing using our proprietary software, coupled with an innovative artificial-intelligence-driven workflow and critical real-time support through a dedicated Care Management Center.

For one Envision partner facility, our radiology services improved performance across several metrics as the hospital improved its turnaround times (TAT) and reduced its radiology subsidy:

• $600K reduction in radiology subsidies
• 99 percent of critical findings communicated in less than 40 minutes
• 17-minute average Stroke Alert TAT

To see how Envision’s radiology services helped a partner facility improve the overall quality of its care, visit.