An Integrated Delivery Model For Providing On-Site and Remote Radiology Services To Rural Midwest Hospitals

The purpose of this scholarly leadership project was to evaluate a model of integrated healthcare delivery for providing radiology services to rural Midwest hospitals. A key priority was to investigate a model of delivery that ensured radiology services were available to rural Midwest hospital patients, similar to the level of quality and value patients could receive by traveling to larger hospitals in more urban settings. This is important due to the impacts and demands of the healthcare marketplace, which is challenging leaders to improve the delivery of services. The model of delivery included radiology coverage for hospitals utilizing teleradiology to send images off-site to sub-specialist radiologists. These enhancements were intended to improve the quality and consistency of radiology interpretations without negatively impacting the necessary turnaround time of results provided to referring clinicians treating patients. This coverage was supplemented by having radiologists travel on-site for scheduled radiology procedures to ensure hospitals could offer necessary levels service for the convenience and satisfaction of local patients and their families. The intended objective of the model was to improve healthcare delivery to patients and to provide a competitive edge for rural hospitals. The study was accomplished by researching current literature, and collecting data from 5 rural hospital CEOs who represented the stakeholders at each facility. The CEOs were chosen because they were considered the key decision makers when contracting for healthcare services at their hospitals. A confidential qualitative on-line survey was conducted to gauge the satisfaction of the implementation and delivery of the new model. In addition, data was collected to investigate the success of the new model before and after implementation, by evaluating the quality measures of result turnaround times and the accuracy rates of the radiologists interpreting radiology findings. My research found that a newly implemented model of radiology service delivery had a positive impact on rural Midwest hospitals, improved their effectiveness in competing with larger hospitals, and improved the overall quality and value of services being accessed by their patients.|Keywords: Teleradiology, radiology services, radiologists, integrated delivery, quality

Grantor dc:publisher

Creighton University

Year dc:date.issued

2014

Author dc:creator

• Dickerson, Thomas C.

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Hudson, John G. II

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright is retained by the Author. A non-exclusive distribution right is granted to Creighton University and to ProQuest following the publishing model selected above.

Language dc:language.iso

en_US

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10504/62705

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:cdr.creighton.edu:10504/62705