Patients are more involved in their healthcare than ever before, utilizing patient portals and seeking care from multiple specialists. This means that the traditional method of practicing radiology has changed, highlighting the need for better communication. If you’re looking to improve the way you communicate with patients and their medical professionals, you can implement some recent recommendations from a group of doctors who address this issue.
Utilize Structured Reporting
Whenever possible, use structured reporting, which often includes templates that can defray any possible confusion. Templates in use today make it easier for everyone involved to understand what is being conveyed in the reports. If the goal is clarity, structured reporting will help you meet that goal.
Patient Portals
Radiologists are big users of patient portals, as exam reports have to be available to patients within 24 hours of the exam. Most healthcare professionals have also included patient portals in their strategy for giving quality care to patients. One issue impacting radiology is that when patients view images, they can get the wrong idea about what they’re seeing, which is why experts recommend including a summary of what’s in the image to avoid patient confusion.
Use Graphs and Tables
Radiology professionals can better explain their image exam findings to patients, and to other specialists, by enhancing their reports with hyperlinks, tables and graphs. If the goal is to tell be clear and tell as much as possible about a situation, then using available clarifying resources can make a big difference.
Easy Viewing Experience
Another sore spot for many radiology professionals and specialists who rely on their services is that gaining access to images can be a hassle. Rather than providing fast and accurate plans for tending to a patient’s needs, they experience a workflow issue because there are roadblocks in the way.
This is especially true of images being burned to CDs, or when proprietary viewers are used and access is neither quick nor easy. With a CD, you’re either relying on mail to transfer the data from one specialist to the next, or you’re risking having the patient damage or lose the CD as they take it from place to place.
For unfettered access to imaging, consider cloud-based solutions that offer vendor neutral archiving (VNA) capabilities. With VNA, you don’t have to worry about being blocked from viewing images because you don’t have the right equipment.
At OffSite Image Management, we offer a host of cloud-based radiology solutions that make communication a breeze. Not only are our clients able to view images from practically anywhere, but they’re also able to provide better services to patients and healthcare professionals in charge of caring for any of their medical needs. For more information about how we can boost your communication efforts, contact us today.
