Dayton Children's Hospital

Most people would agree that the one constant in life is ‘change’, whether it is personal or professional. From a professional perspective, healthcare leaders today are faced with cultivating change in pursuing organizational growth, patient experience, patient safety, and employee engagement. Medical imaging plays a significant role in the organizational change model. This is because medical imaging directly impacts all areas of patient care services. The highly competitive nature of healthcare today drives this pursuit of growth, with medical imaging being one of the revenue-generating engines that are heavily depended on for clinical significance. It is invaluable to lead fact-based change to stimulate overall growth.

Fact-based change continues to evolve as new systems lend to more robust and accurate analytics. These priceless analytics monitor growth and identify improvement areas that require action plans to make the adjustments and changes needed to facilitate growth.

Identifying trends and areas of inefficiency are essential metrics to monitor. In medical imaging, there are a lot of great metrics that can aid in leading fact-based changes. Some of them are listed below.

• Tracking units of service.

• Referring to provider trends.

• Exam turnaround times.

• Report turnaround times.

• Chargemaster changes.

• On-time starts.

• Cancelation and no-shows. 

• Staff productivity.

• Schedule utilization efficiency.

• Patient zip code trends.

• Time to appointment 

These are just a few metrics needed to aid in the decision-making process. These metrics require ongoing monitoring to fine-tune the department to proactively prevent lost revenue or patient care concerns.

The need for change isn't always in the name of increasing revenue. Change is also sometimes required to improve patient care and promote safety. Understanding the collaborations and the roles medical imaging plays in other areas of the hospital is paramount to driving enhanced workflows. These improved workflows directly influence the course of treatment, patient experience, and ultimately patient care outcomes.

“The need for change isn't always in the name of increasing revenue. Change is also sometimes required to improve patient care and promote safety.”

Analytics aid in identifying the area of the problem and providing a means for ongoing monitoring so that the desired change is anchored into the patient care workflow. However, understanding who your partners are and establishing a collaboration around the need for the proposed change will significantly drive change toward the intended outcome. Without those well-established and cultivated relationships and partnerships, the drive for change will be futile.

Ensuring the partnership component when driving change will promote cross-departmental success. These partnerships facilitate communication among staff and therefore reinforce those elements of change. Ongoing communication and celebrating the success of change throughout the process will instill a sense of achievement among the frontline staff. These crucial steps help those driving the change to see the positive progression, which builds trust and confirms that the requested change was necessary.

A tracking and trending process is necessary when applicable. Ongoing trend analysis to monitor the implemented change will be critical to ensure the proposed changes progress positively. Notating change dates and actions taken will aid in the trend analysis legitimacy. The trend analysis will be your success meter, or it may identify other potential areas needing change.

Encouraging frontline staff to become active change agents engages them in a way that develops ownership and works to create influencers within the department. Working with the frontline team in areas of change creates ownership and willingness to help by identifying critical change needs. Not only will they support the proposed change, but they will actively seek other areas of change that could have a positive impact on organizational success.

Change can be difficult, but good supporting analytics can make the need for change much better understood and widely accepted. Developing analytic systems that drive the change increases collaboration, influences trust, improves acceptance, eliminates emotional influences, and decreases the potential for lost revenue while improving patient experiences and outcomes.