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.

Medicare cost-cutting initiative targets ‘wasteful, inappropriate’ interventional radiology services
IRs criticized the CMS proposal, believing it could lead to excess morbidity and mortality in Medicare.
Radiology group cyberattack exposes private info of over 150,000 patients
The information exposed during the attack included names, addresses, dates of birth, Social Security numbers and service charges.
Hospital redesigns radiology 2nd opinion service, scoring 92% collection success rate
OSU Medical Center has addressed common challenges including insufficient documentation, miscommunication, and the risk of repeat imaging.
Experts share recipe to reduce radiologist recommendations for unnecessary extra imaging
Education and other initiatives helped cut the rate of radiologist recommendations for additional imaging by 44% compared to a control site.
The top 25 heart hospitals in the United States
Newsweek and Statista have crunched the data and ranked the top U.S. hospitals for cardiac care. Did your facility make the cut?

Patients admitted with C. diff not a significant source of in-hospital transmission

Hospital patients who test positive for Clostridioides difficile immediately upon admission but show no symptoms are highly unlikely to spread the germ to other inpatients.

Wellbeing of current and future physicians by the numbers

Nearly 8 in 10 physicians might balk before seeking mental healthcare due to perceptions of stigma around doctors admitting they need that kind of help.

82% of CTA head and neck scans in 1 emergency department had no actionable findings

Nonphysician practitioners and ED residents also ordered a significantly greater proportion of such exams, experts detailed in JACR.

ACR sees burden and little benefit from CMS’s plan to tackle ‘excessive radiation dose’

The American College of Radiology is "urgently" asking that the agency rename the measure, worried that it could be spreading misinformation.

Radiology groups urge CMS to retool the flawed Merit-based Incentive Payment System

Leaders with ACR, the RBMA and Radiology Partners all have recently written about concerning aspects of the quality-focused Medicare payment program.

Should radiology groups share individual physicians’ productivity metrics?

Two members of the specialty attempted to answer this query, sharing dueling opinion pieces in the American Journal of Roentgenology.

Implementing structured radiology reporting via O-RADS boosts patient, referrer satisfaction

One key finding, experts noted, is that the Ovarian-Adnexal Reporting and Data System had little impact on patients' ability to interpret reports.

Joint Commission’s Ongoing Professional Practice Evaluation process called ‘costly, ineffective and potentially harmful’

Hospitals spent recurring labor costs per provider of about $50.20, extrapolated for a total national cost of roughly $78.54M, experts wrote in JACR.

Quality

Medicare cost-cutting initiative targets ‘wasteful, inappropriate’ interventional radiology services

Radiology group cyberattack exposes private info of over 150,000 patients

Hospital redesigns radiology 2nd opinion service, scoring 92% collection success rate

Experts share recipe to reduce radiologist recommendations for unnecessary extra imaging

The top 25 heart hospitals in the United States