Patient Care and Teleradiology: 3 Dangers Diagnostic Facilities should tackle smartly

Diagnostic facilities are required to survive to the expectations of patients and doctors on both costs and quality. Fiddled with technological changes, Diagnostic facilities are experimenting with new avenues to belittle financial risk and improve TAT (Turn Around Time). Tele Reporting of MRI or CT scans from any distant radiologist instead of hiring has opened up new gateways. However, this new arrangement invites more challenges that needs to be tackled while taking teleradiology backup.

Hurdle 1: Tele-reporting Vs Patient Flow

Diagnostic facilities offer great value to both patients and doctors by producing quickly MRI or CT reports that too in one's budget. Once the diagnostic facility is set-up, there are monthly expenses that a diagnostic facility needs to take care of. The costs of regulatory compliance is on both sides: Capital Account and Revenue Account. Then there is competitive pressure on getting the right patient flow that translates into marketing or sales costs. Owners pool capital in an expectation to impact the patient ecosystem and also to generate long term returns. The need for Diagnostic facilities is to hold teleporting platforms accountable and expect them to find ways to increase the patient flow in no increased budget. A senior radiologist at TeleradiologyHub.com says, "We have started talking to patients and referral doctors alike 24x 7. This is post reporting the MRI or CT scans, we know that the patient needs support. Our team including health staff negotiates and offers discounts on scans to patients and provides free interpretation of the reports that helps to improve patient flow at and Diagnostic brand of particular diagnostic facility."

Hurdle 2: Fixed Cost Vs Variable Cost

Capital in the range of USD 1million is required in setting up an MRI and a CT scan facility. It also varies with place and machine models. The monthly burn rate at the diagnostic facility typically includes salaries to staff and radiologist, utilities and other marketing or relationship expenses. In such situations, the fixed salaries of radiologists work as a drag on monthly Income for diagnostic facilities, especially when the patient flow plummets. In such a situation, the diagnostic facilities would like to reduce the fixed monthly salary cost down. The teleradiology model greatly offers a variable cost structure that helps the diagnostic facilities. This way Diagnostic facilities either contract a teleradiologist or a tele-reporting company thereby converting fixed salary cost to revenue cost. "There are several telereporting companies or teleradiologists who are working on monthly variable contracts but some smart teleradiology platforms like Teleraiologyhub have evolved unit economics- they are working on a single report cost basis using a paid wallet system where radiologists are awarded for each case. This way ahead of teleradiology model, amazingly the variable cost even further reduces down to single case.", said Dr Kabra working with Teleradiologyhub.com.

Hurdle 3: Teleradiologist Vs Quality Reporting

The Teleradiology Model has evolved to suit the needs of patients, doctors and most importantly diagnostic facilities. It saves time and cost. But what about quality? The referral doctors are reporting the fall in quality of reports when diagnostic facilities are shifting from 'salary-based' radiologist payment to 'reporting volume based' teleradiologist payment models. This challenge is difficult to handle when any radiologist can potentially start his teleradiology venture in no time. " Teleporting has gone cheap, everybody is competing with everybody," says,Dr Kadlas, who is a senior neurosurgeon. The teleradiology models are evolving by seeing the fall in quality. However once tied up with any radiologist, it is difficult to depart the contract in between. TeleradiologyHub again reported to have innovated a way out to help diagnostic companies. They have constituted the Editorial Board and platform is doing massive Trial and Error cases from new jonee teleradiologists. Once on the board, teleradiologists are fed with real cases and monitored over their deliverables. The real time feedback is taken from diagnostic facilities. This helps in evaluation of telereporting quality thereby system feeds next case to an efficient teleradiologist. There are second opinion panels even to give entry to teleradiologists. "This smart tele reporting system improves by itself by providing rewards for quality and improving quality participation from teleradiologist ", says Dr Kabra who reports on different teleradiology platforms including Teleradiologyhub.com