5 secrets of an efficient radiology department
October 28, 2010
by Brendon Nafziger, Writer
Not many radiology departments have a full-time economist on staff,
but Dr. Hans-Peter Busch's does. The director of radiology with
Krankenhaus der Barmherzigen Brüder, a 600-bed hospital in Trier,
Germany, Busch originally trained to be a physicist. "So I like
numbers, figures and facts," he says.
A frequent speaker and author of "Management Handbuch für Radiologe,"
Busch is one of a number of radiologists hoping to bring
productivity-boosting methods to the profession.
Busch's main aim is what he calls "process optimization" -- finding
ways to streamline workflow, improve utilization and keep patients
happy.
By some accounts, these kinds of strategies work. Earlier this month,
Mayo Clinic researchers reported in the Journal of the American
College of Radiology they were able to boost productivity among
radiologic technologists by 50 percent through a measurement-feedback
program, potentially saving the department $174,000 a year in
personnel costs.
And Busch says optimization will soon be increasingly necessary,
especially as payer models move from paying per exam (the "so more, so
better" model, as Busch puts it) to tying payments to a course of
treatment or even population, as in the accountable care organization
(ACO) model, in which radiology departments will have to be even
leaner.
Even now, there are benefits, he says. Since hiring the economist and
running process optimization strategies, his team found unexpected
ways to run a tighter and, yes, better-smelling, ship.
"Only to do good radiology," Busch says, "you cannot survive."
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