In today's fast-paced healthcare environment, radiology departments face immense pressure to deliver accurate and timely diagnoses, while managing increasing workloads and facing staffing challenges. A radiology department’s operations and workflow must adequately support imaging exam volumes, staffing, and growth across its health system. And while advances in imaging technology have enabled more accurate diagnoses and disease detection, complex imaging protocols, and resource challenges can make it difficult to maintain imaging quality across the enterprise. In fact, for the first time in 17 years, staffing shortages are the top concern for hospital CEOs.[1]
However, digital solutions from industry-leading partners are revolutionizing radiology departments' operations by enhancing operational efficiencies and maximizing resource optimization. A holistic approach to department operations with consolidated data from various sources allows radiologists and administrators to comprehensively understand department performance, from identifying staff training needs to monitoring system performance, utilization, protocol standardization, and more.
More than 80 percent of health systems face significant shortages in their radiology departments, primarily due to challenges in finding and retaining sufficiently trained staff.[2] This shortage is exacerbated by the difficulty in maintaining continuous staff training. As radiology departments strive to keep up with the increasing demand for imaging services, digital solutions offer a vital lifeline.
Enabling connected care and peer-to-peer assistance in radiology departments
Data-driven insights have the potential to unlock opportunities for tackling challenges and relieving the burdens on radiologists and their teams. Advancements in digital solutions are fundamentally reshaping the landscape of radiology operations. They can help alleviate time demands on radiology workflows, provide better standardization, and increase imaging consistency.
With the help of digital solutions, remote access and scanning assistance capabilities have become essential in modern radiology departments, especially in helping to address staffing challenges and foster collaboration. Digital solutions facilitate remote consultations or assistance with complex protocols, enabling staff to provide expert assistance without being physically present. Remote collaboration and scan assistance empower radiology staff to focus on patient care, knowing they can access the support they need whenever required. Through advanced digital platforms, radiology staff can share expertise during complex cases via peer-to-peer collaboration, ensuring patients receive quality care.
“GE HealthCare is committed to advancing operational efficiencies in radiology. Tools like GE HealthCare’s Imaging 360 is a holistic innovative solution that fuels productivity across sites and imaging modalities, scaling the imaging enterprise and creating operational visibility in radiology,” said Rekha Ranganathan, senior vice president, general manager, Imaging Platforms and Digital Solutions at GE HealthCare. “It enables easy access to data, actionable insights, and an integrated view of operations, allowing for better resource allocation, optimized scheduling, efficient protocol management, and streamlined workflows. Additionally, we’re providing remote solutions to connect staff for remote support, training, collaboration and remote scan initiation for MR*.”
Remotely optimize resources across the radiology department
Remote capabilities allow radiology departments to access and manage multiple devices from multiple vendors across various locations remotely, optimizing resources and ensuring that equipment is used efficiently and effectively throughout a hospital or health system. These solutions can help facilitate radiology staff onboarding and sharing of best practices anytime and from any location. This ensures that new team members are quickly brought up to speed and that all staff have access to the latest procedural knowledge and advancements.
Imaging protocols can be standardized remotely, helping radiology staff to deliver consistent imaging across the department, which could reduce the likelihood of errors and may help reduce the need for repeat exams. Standardizing protocols can help radiology departments deliver uniform, high-quality patient care while optimizing operational efficiency and resource management.
GE HealthCare’s Imaging 360 Remote platform supports remote access, enabling the sharing of expertise, best practices, in-the-moment support, and real-time, remote console control. The remote tool also enables remote patient scanning, which is compatible with GE HealthCare MR devices*.
“GE HealthCare is committed to continued investment in the rapidly growing space of remote operations through innovation and strategic collaborations that support the current and future needs of healthcare institutions. Our goal is to provide remote operations solutions that lead to increased access for patients, including patients who may require complex care and support from an off-site expert technologist,” said Ranganathan. “Additionally, we recognize that healthcare systems are not only looking to leverage the skills of one expert across multiple physical locations for knowledge sharing and training but have an imaging fleet that includes multiple vendors and modalities, so it was critical for us to expand our remote operations portfolio by adding IONIC Health’s nCommand™ Lite technology.”
By integrating the remote capability through the digital solutions platforms, Imaging 360 Remote with nCommand™ Lite by IONIC Health, department leaders can optimize radiology operations by taking a holistic approach. Department administrators can gain improved visibility and access to data that can be used to improve productivity and influence improved scheduling. Not only can a department improve exam scheduling using the predictive scheduling analytics within Imaging 360, but also are able to make informed decisions around resource scheduling, such as scheduling remote technologists, who are trained staff for remote scan assistance during high volumes of complex exams. Remote collaboration and scan assistance has the potential to enable flexibility in expanding and scaling resources as well as help counter radiology resource scarcity and cost pressures across multiple sites through streamlined training and remote knowledge sharing. Connect your staff remotely with centralized expertise to optimize resource allocation, such as connecting a rural hospital with a regional specialist, supporting patient access to care.
Maintaining image quality and care across locations
The number of hospital and health system mergers continues to rise. It is not projected to slow down in the coming years, driven by financial distress or to remain competitive in an ever-evolving landscape.[3] However, service delivery during and after these consolidations must be consistent and seamless for the patient.
Consistency in quality of care and imaging standards is crucial for patient outcomes and departmental efficiency. Protocol management is a key area to drive consistency and can be time consuming for radiology departments, especially when managing a wide fleet across distributed locations. There are many reasons to drive standardization and consistency across your imaging devices, such as helping to reduce the risk of errors and helping to reduce repeat exams. GE Healthcare’s Imaging 360 Protocols is designed to help facilities remotely organize and edit protocols across the fleet which could help minimize rescans, avoid system disruptions, reduce unnecessary staff travel, and monitor protocol adoption to drive consistent quality of care.**
Driving the future of improved radiology operations with digital solutions
Digital solutions are helping to transform radiology departments by streamlining operations, enabling remote access and assistance, and maintaining high-quality care across multiple locations. GE HealthCare’s Imaging 360 and the latest integration of nCommand Lite by IONIC Health exemplifies how advanced technology can unite radiology departments, enhance expertise, and drive operational efficiency. By adopting such innovative tools, radiology departments can help standardize care, reduce errors, and ultimately help provide better patient outcomes while optimizing resources and increasing revenue potential.
Learn more about GE HealthCare’s Imaging 360 Remote.
DISCLAIMERS
*MR remote scan initiation is not available on all GE HealthCare MR models or in all regions. Please contact your GE HealthCare representative for more information on product compatibility and availability.
Imaging 360 remote scanning is enabled either by GE HealthCare’s Digital Expert Access or nCommand™ Lite by IONIC Health pending the best solution for your imaging fleet.
nCommand Lite by IONIC Health is 510k cleared by the US FDA but is not yet CE marked. It is not commercially available in all regions.
** Protocol Management functionality is unique to GE HealthCare, and capabilities vary based on HW/SW level for compatible devices only.
Not all products or features are available in all geographies. Check with your local GE HealthCare representative for availability in your country.
REFERENCES
[1] https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/hospital-management-administration/hospital-ceos-no-1-concern-is-staffing-for-1st-time-in-17-years.html
[2] https://www.itnonline.com/article/minding-gap-strategies-address-growing-radiology-shortage
[3] https://www.chiefhealthcareexecutive.com/view/hospital-merger-activity-is-projected-to-increase-in-2024
