Quality

The focus of quality improvement in healthcare is to bolster performance and processes related to diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. Leaders in this space also ensure the proper selection of imaging exams and procedures, and monitor the safety of services, among other duties. Reimbursement programs such as the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) utilize financial incentives to improve quality. This also includes setting and maintaining care quality initiatives, such as the requirements set by the Joint Commission.

In Canada, discovery of unapproved viewing stations leads to review of 3K mammograms

A governmental healthcare provider in Canada has begun reviewing mammography results from around 3,000 patients imaged over the past three years.

4 physicians ask 4 pointed questions about shared decision-making

Question 1. Is the CMS policy that requires documenting shared decision-making for lung cancer screening even working?

money maze payment reimbursement

ASTRO: ‘We hope this official delay provides an opportunity for CMS to … work more closely with the radiation oncology community’

Last week CMS dug in with its decision to put off finalizing an alternative value-based payment model for radiation oncology services to “a date to be determined through future rulemaking.”

Pediatric radiologists skillfully read emergency breast ultrasound—but patients may shrug off discharge instructions

For this reason, these patients may need pointed guidance upon ED discharge lest cancers go undetected in early stages.  

U.S. News & World Report children’s hospitals cardiology heart surgery

New Orleans looks to Cleveland for pediatric coverage

Children’s Hospital New Orleans is tapping Cleveland Clinic as a way to make sure Pelican State families have ready access to board-certified pediatric radiologists.

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Emergency trunk CT rises sharply even for minor, moderate trauma

Almost 10 of every 1,000 patients evaluated for trauma injuries in 2018 received CT scans of the chest, abdomen and pelvis to supply a diagnostic view of, in essence, the entire torso.

In-house 3D print shops may save time, cut costs, earn end-users’ applause

Surgeons and other interventionalists who tapped an academic radiology department’s 3D printing service to plan and practice upcoming procedures saved almost half an hour per operation over the course of a year. 

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The patient, who was being cared for in the ICU, was not accompanied or monitored by nursing staff during his exam, despite being sedated.

The nuclear imaging isotope shortage of molybdenum-99 may be over now that the sidelined reactor is restarting. ASNC's president says PET and new SPECT technologies helped cardiac imaging labs better weather the storm.

CMS has more than doubled the CCTA payment rate from $175 to $357.13. The move, expected to have a significant impact on the utilization of cardiac CT, received immediate praise from imaging specialists.