Extreme Make-Over
As one might imagine, we have been intensely focused on the challenges of scheduling over 200 examinations per day at 6 sites, and are fortunate to have added to our team Ms. Ilene Rattner. Ms. Rattner formerly managed Radiology scheduling at Long Island Jewish Hospital, and brings with her expertise in individual requirements for radiologic procedures and an understanding of the managed care barriers that need to be surmounted to obtain radiologic studies. Under Ms. Rattner’s direction, 98% of our scheduling calls are answered by one of eight schedulers within 2 rings, with an average wait time to reach a scheduler of 12 seconds! This fast response is reflected in our rapidly diminishing phone call abandon rate (the percentage of calls where the caller hangs-up), currently a fraction of 1%. This metric widely leads industry standards. In collaboration with our informatics group, we are revising our scheduling module to allow swift confirmation of appointments for patients in frequent need of imaging services, such as oncology patients.
We have addressed our challenge of geographic dispersion by investing in a document imaging system where a referral prescription from the clinician can be faxed to a central location in advance of the patient appointment. The electronic referral is then merged with patient documents in our Radiology Information System (RIS), thereby minimizing frustrating phone calls from our office to the referrers and delay in patient services related to requisite paper work. This system has become increasingly successful in streamlining patient throughput at the time of the examination.
Dr. Sanger has developed a mechanism for scheduling non-emergency examinations via a web application. This has been particularly well received by the office staff of our oncologists at the NYU Cancer Center. Aside from the convenience, we have been able to relieve a large amount of telephone based scheduling, freeing our phone lines for other interactions.
To assist referring physicians in accessing a radiologist for review or consultation on imaging studies all requests are directed to one central patient contact (phone 212-263-5222) monitored by Dr. Megibow.
At NYU-FPR putting the best people in place at all levels of management, and providing a work force that can and will execute in a peerless and professional fashion is a pledge of our commitment. This assurance comes directly from Dr. Grossman, the department chair, and Dr. Megibow, and is the most important priority of our department. Beyond expert image interpretation, referring clinicians can expect rapid report turnaround, consistent communication of important findings by the interpreting radiologist, a seamless scheduling experience, and security in the knowledge that their patient will be examined in as timely a fashion as possible. Our overarching goal is for acknowledgement by our referring clinicians and patients that NYU-FPR is the finest radiology practice in the city of New York. We are working vigorously to achieve this aim.
The process just described reflects our profound commitment to improved service to our referring physicians and enhanced clinical care for our patients. The foundation of this course of action is based not only on the ultimate in progressive imaging technology, but also by harnessing recent advances in communication and administrative technology, and most importantly through creative utilization of the exceptional attributes of our personnel and the astounding expertise and commitment of our faculty.
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