4 tips to help radiology departments vet and cancel inappropriate imaging requests
Radiologists can play a pivotal role in vetting and canceling inappropriate imaging requests, and there are a few moves departments can make to set the specialty up for success.
That’s according to new guidance from the United Kingdom’s Royal College of Radiologists, released this month. Vetting is an “extremely important” but often overlooked duty of physicians in imaging. RCR believes this role will only grow as rads become more patient-facing and diagnostics serve as the first step in emerging patient care pathways.
“In addition to ensuring the efficient operation of the radiology department, review of imaging requests provides an opportunity to share informative feedback with the referrer indicating why a request has not been sanctioned,” wrote the college’s Radiology Informatics Committee. “As such, an effective vetting service depends on good communication.”
Experts offered a few fundamental technology requirements to ensure this process is useful and efficient. RCR said its advice assumes that this review occurs in the radiology information system.
1. Vetting and cancellation should typically only take two or fewer mouse clicks.
2. Communication of the request cancellation should be identical to reporting—if rads typically communicate through a PACS, then imaging denials should be transmitted through the same system.
3. When vetting, radiologists should have comprehensive information on the patient, including one-click access to images and reports, blood results, discharge summaries and more.
4. Physicians’ vetting workload should be recognized as billable work activity, in the same way reporting is counted in the radiology information system.
You can read the rest of the Royal College of Radiologists’ advice here.
Marty Stempniak has covered healthcare since 2012, with his byline appearing in the American Hospital Association's member magazine, Modern Healthcare and McKnight's. Prior to that, he wrote about village government and local business for his hometown newspaper in Oak Park, Illinois. He won a Peter Lisagor and Gold EXCEL awards in 2017 for his coverage of the opioid epidemic.