Business Analytics for Radiology

In today’s competitive healthcare environment, radiologic service providers must operate under increasing requirements and constraints as they face decreasing resources and reimbursements. Consequently, they must continuously demonstrate values to their clients and look for ways to continually make improvements.

In today’s competitive healthcare environment, radiologic service providers must operate under increasing requirements and constraints as they face decreasing resources and reimbursements. Consequently, they must continuously demonstrate values to their clients and look for ways to continually make improvements. Service providers must go beyond simply managing operations and measure upgrades in their processes as it relates to productivity, efficiency, quality, and safety.

Similar to many healthcare service providers, radiologists are turning to business analytics or “business intelligence” tools for data in order to streamline their workflow and improve processes. Analytics software helps radiologists to use programs to gather data, and combined with graphic visualization, leverages the information to identify workflow issues and make evidence-based changes to their processes.

The Business Intelligence Process

Radiology administrators and managers can benefit from having the tools that enable them to integrate, store, and analyze data from multiple non-communicating electronic resources. Not only will they be able to analyze trends and support decisions in real-time, but the information can help them evaluate efficiency, monitor quality and safety, meet regulatory and reimbursement requirements, and evaluate financial performance.

The capabilities of analytics software programs include:

• Integration of data from different sources

• Conversion of information into a unified format

• Storage of information in a data warehouse

• Analyzing of information

The business analytic processing tools aggregate data from multiple sources into one unified database to provide critical radiological metrics in a comprehensive presentational view that help you uncover meaningful patterns and insights into you business.

Benefits of Using Business Analytic

One of the best reasons for using business analytics is to determine whether or not your equipment utilization rate is causing you to lose business. It can measure to what degree you are using CT or MRI equipment and if you are getting the most out of those units. You can also find out if one machine is being overused or if your clients must wait a long time for service.

The software can also help you measure personnel utilization to find out how you or your staff uses time.  For example, business intelligence can reveal how busy your pediatric radiologists, neuroradiologists or other specialists are. This can help you make better use of their time.

You can run reports to provide the information you require to address any issue to minimize inefficiencies and reduce bottlenecks in the work flow, including:

• More efficient and cost-effective exchange of patient information with referring physicians.

• Interpretation of imaging reports.

• Billing and coding processes.

Business analytics not only enhances your ability to improve the quality of care, but also to measure your performance against established benchmarks.  

Radiological Analytics Software

There are dozens of radiological applications. You will need to identify the analytics tools that work best for your practice. Besides determining what your needs are, you must also assess other factors like price, contract terms and ease of implementation.

The software you choose will need to be simple and user-friendly, but powerful enough to put you in control of your data—even if it comes from separate systems. Analytics applications can access, prepare, blend and deliver data from an unlimited number of sources. Advanced analytics should enable you to perform a range of tasks, including

• Measure productivity metrics

• Create basic reports

• Develop performance scorecards

• Conduct predictive modeling

• Provide access to mission critical data at anytime

Employing business intelligence in your radiological practice makes your operations more efficient, facilitates your decision making process, improves patient outcomes and boosts your revenues.

Image via Stuart Miles/freedigitalphotos.net