Quality

The focus of quality improvement in healthcare is to bolster performance and processes related to diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. Leaders in this space also ensure the proper selection of imaging exams and procedures, and monitor the safety of services, among other duties. Reimbursement programs such as the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) utilize financial incentives to improve quality. This also includes setting and maintaining care quality initiatives, such as the requirements set by the Joint Commission.

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Hospitals pilot policies to test older radiologists’ mental and physical fitness

About 5% of U.S. healthcare organizations have now implemented such competency testing, with about 13% of physicians deemed unfit for the job. 

Does placing a patient’s photograph in the EHR influence radiologist behavior?

Economic and psychological studies have shown that seeing an individual’s face can change one's actions—a dynamic relevant to rads who experience minimal patient interaction. 

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Most referrer requests for imaging are inadequate, new scoring system shows

Amid calls to reduce the rate of low-value imaging exams, experts have developed RI-RADS, a scoring system for rating imaging requests. 

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Outsourced radiology reports less thorough than in-house ones, researchers claim

Free-text reporting also was associated with significant omissions in abdominal anatomical structures, researchers detailed in the journal Cureus

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Effort to stop primary care providers from ordering low-value imaging hits brick wall

Researchers with the University of California, Davis, detailed their randomized clinical trial in JAMA Network Open Wednesday. 

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American College of Radiology updates imaging appropriateness criteria with 8 new topics

ACR is adding new entries covering scenarios such as brain tumors, inflammatory ear disease, and lung cancer staging after therapy. 

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What pizza delivery and university radiologists’ new approach to mammography have in common

Consumers can track their pie when it enters the oven, is boxed and departs for delivery. Why can't they do the same with cancer screening results? 

Radiologists divided on which CT quality measures are most important

The unique preferences of different readers highlight a need for more quantitative measures of quality specific to subspecialties.