What if there was a way to improve your radiologists’ productivity and help them focus on image interpretation without the heavy lift of a massive imaging IT project? Australian researchers found an old-school solution: shifting many clerical tasks to radiology administrative assistants.
The huge – and growing – disconnect between radiologist staffing and imaging volume has imaging managers around the world searching for solutions.
- Some are turning to high-tech tools like AI to squeeze more productivity from their radiologists, many of whom are already operating at maximum capacity.
But lost in the debate is the reality that radiologists perform many functions besides just image interpretation (a fact that seems to have escaped some New York hospital CEOs).
- These tasks include notifying clinicians of imaging findings, locating prior images, and study protocoling. Previous research indicates that these noninterpretive tasks can consume up to 44% of a radiologist’s workday.
In the new study, published in Current Problems in Diagnostic Radiology, researchers implemented a system in which radiology administrative assistants were assigned to radiologists at Jones Radiology, a network of 60 radiologists across 30 sites in Australia.
- The RAAs worked normal business hours and were assigned tasks through a critical results feature in the PACS. Radiologists could choose if and when they wanted to use the RAA service.
The main task RAAs handled was communicating critical results to referring physicians.
- But they also had other jobs, like finding and importing prior images, flagging scans that needed priority review, and providing research assistance.
How well did the RAA system work? The researchers tracked its performance over 12 months from 2021 to 2022, finding that RAAs…
- Were assigned 5.4k tasks during the study period.
- Saved 679 hours of radiologist time.
- 50% of the tasks involved communicating significant or unexpected results to clinicians.
- The remaining tasks were unrelated to results communication, such as sourcing external images, miscellaneous tasks and general inquiries, and supporting radiologists with IT issues.
- Over 90% of “important” findings were communicated within the six-hour target turnaround time, but only 55% of “critical” findings met the one-hour turnaround goal.
The Takeaway
The idea of a clerical assistant to take over a radiologist’s noninterpretive tasks isn’t necessarily new, but this study is a great example of how to put it into practice. Radiology administrative assistants could also serve as a bridge to more complex IT-based operational solutions in the future.
