Interventional radiologists lack knowledge about supply costs, survey says
New data highlight a critical knowledge gap pertaining to interventional radiology trainees’ and attendings’ understanding of the supply-related charges attached to procedures.
These charges account for a significant portion of IR expenditures, but many physicians indicated they never had formal training in charge awareness. This can create unnecessary waste of supplies and related expenses, authors of the new paper, published in the journal Current Problems in Diagnostic Radiology, cautioned.
“Within interventional radiology, supply-related devices and disposable materials constitute a significant proportion of procedural expenditures, with prior analyses demonstrating that disposable materials account for 30%–80% of total IR procedure-related costs,” Vikram F Gupta, MD, with the division of interventional radiology at Duke University Medical Center, and colleagues explained. “National medical device spending remains a major component of overall health expenditures, estimated at approximately $199 billion in 2019.”
The authors noted that multiple organizations, including the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education and the American College of Physicians, have pushed for including cost-awareness principals in physician training. With that in mind, the Duke team sought to determine if a simple intervention could boost providers’ awareness of supply expenditures.
They first surveyed a group of IR residents and attendings on their baseline knowledge of supply charges for 10 common procedures and 8 devices. Residents then underwent an educational intervention involving real-time feedback of supply charges after procedures; they also were trained on how to access itemized charge data within the electronic medical record and completed two didactic sessions on device prices and institutional charges. Pre- and post-intervention surveys were distributed to determine how much of the information was retained.
Pre-intervention surveys suggested that although all the residents understood the importance of being aware of supply costs, there was a lack of training related to the economics of IR procedures among the group. In fact, just one of the participants reported having any sort of cost-related education.
However, the intervention proved effective, with those who reported adequate education about device charges increasing from 12% to 86%; participants' awareness of how to access charge information improved as well, with 71% saying they felt properly informed after the intervention. Both procedure and device charge accuracy also improved.
“Prior literature across medical specialties has demonstrated persistently low physician accuracy in estimating procedure and device-related costs, even when clinicians report strong interest in such knowledge,” the group noted. “The present findings are consistent with these prior studies and now demonstrate that a low-resource, workflow-integrated intervention may improve charge awareness among senior interventional radiology trainees.”
Read more about the group’s work here.
In addition to her background in journalism, Hannah also has patient-facing experience in clinical settings, having spent more than 12 years working as a registered rad tech. She began covering the medical imaging industry for Innovate Healthcare in 2021.