Nighthawk Radiology Services Provides Client Peer Review

NightHawk Radiology Services (Nasdaq: NHWK), the leading provider of radiology solutions to radiology groups across the United States, announced the availability of its Client Peer Review (CPR), part of its best-in-class Quality Assurance Program, and the only one of its kind that provides an objective measure of effective communication and reporting accuracy based on the impact on patient outcomes.While third-party peer review is an important component of radiology checks and balances and a requirement for meeting Joint Commission, pay-for-performance (P4P) and ACR standards, it is a challenging and time consuming process that is difficult for practices to manage and can lead to late, unreported and inaccurate data. "The administrative burden of maintaining a peer review program takes radiologists' valuable time away from patient care and growing their business," said Timothy Myers, MD, Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer for NightHawk. "Our CPR program can help breathe new life into their practice with a convenient, reliable peer review solution."

Peer Review from NightHawk is unique because it adheres to Quality Assurance Program standards based on how patient care is impacted, rather than the difficulty in reading a report. The ability to generate accurate and comprehensive peer review reports is also a valuable asset for demonstrating value to hospitals, executive committees, and standards-based committees like the Joint Commission. NightHawk's Peer Review Program, accessed through a secure portal, ensures that reports are always timely, and its in-depth reporting makes valuable performance data easily accessible to the practice.

American College of Radiology Third Annual Conference Covers Quality and Patient Safety

The American College of Radiology (ACR) held its third annual conference on quality and safety in radiology — Maximizing Value in Radiology Through Quality and Safety Improvements — Oct 22 and 23 in Phoenix, Arizona. The conference was organized by the ACR and drew heavily from expertise at Mayo Clinic (Rochester, Minn., and Scottsdale, Ariz.) and Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle. Daniel Johnson, MD, FACR, chair of radiology at Mayo Clinic Arizona, was program chair.

The program covered central principles of patient safety and quality improvement in the context of radiology and reported in depth on radiology-specific problems and solutions.

Though the format was not the most important factor in the conference’s impact, it certainly added value to the program. Presentations were either 10 or 20 minutes long, and it’s easy to imagine that having limited time encouraged speakers to be succinct and focused. To quote Toby Gilk, an MRI safety expert who attended and spoke at the conference: “All wheat; no chaf.”

The two-day program was organized into an overview plus four sessions focused on safety, utilization, process improvement, and physician outcomes. In addition, 16 proffered papers were presented in 10-minute overviews. These summaries provided enticing “tip of the iceberg” glimpses into meaningful, applicable research. Click here to see the program.

Another aspect of the program was Q&A discussions, which I enjoyed for their content as well as format. At the conclusion of each topical session, the speakers—usually three or four—took questions as a panel, which worked well for framing questions around broad issues and fostering conversation among the speakers. Questions from the audience provided another sub-plot. Many questions were along the lines of, “Thank you for your presentation. I’m in private practice (or in one case, managing a collection of small practices, ‘Onesies and twosies’) and trying to figure out how I can apply these principles to my practice with very limited resources.” I see private practices joining the patient safety conversation in increasing numbers. I hope that all organizations that sponsor conferences about safety and quality, including ACR, will begin to include strategies for smaller practices with limited budgets.

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