Diversified Radiology’s 24/7 Teleradiology Coverage
As a patient, wouldn’t you presume that going to the hospital means that you are going to receive the best care that suits your particular needs? Unfortunately, this is not always the case. For example, let’s say that your child requires emergency imaging at 3:00 am. At that hour, most hospitals don’t have access to a Pediatric Radiologist to interpret these emergent and specialized cases. Many times, these cases are given a “prelim” read and then sit until the next morning. By then, several hours would have passed without ensuring the proper treatment for your child! Other times, they are read by a radiologist who is not subspecialty trained in Pediatric Radiology. In either scenario, your child is not receiving care that suits her particular needs.
But there are hospitals that recognize the need to deliver comprehensive care around the clock. Diversified Radiology is an ideal resource for these hospitals, delivering comprehensive, subspecialized teleradiology service, offered on a national, 24/7 basis. This enhanced breadth of service is unique in the industry with subspecialized expertise available all night, every night. Our afterhours model consists of subspecialty trained radiologists in Body Imaging, Neuroradiology and Pediatric Radiology – every night. Diversified Radiology is one of a very small handful of groups in the entire country that offers this level of specialization during overnight hours.
This dedicated cohort of physicians differs vastly from the one-size-fits-all overnight approach of other groups that assign randomly specialized radiologists to overnight shifts. For instance, in other practices, one night could be covered by a breast imaging radiologist, the next by a musculoskeletal radiologist, the next by a general radiologist, and so on. So, your child may undergo an exam read by a general radiologist or one trained in a different area such as mammography or body imaging. This could result in inaccurate exam interpretations, which lead to incorrect treatment and triage, additional imaging, and higher costs. All of this could have and should have been avoided.
…covering an overnight shift requires a different skill set than working during the day.
Having a dedicated core of afterhours radiologists requires a large financial investment, which affects the bottom line. In light of this, most groups rotate their daytime radiologists through the night shifts. But this model overlooks the fact that covering an overnight shift requires a different skill set than working during the day. When radiologists who regularly work day shifts are required to cover night shifts, they generally do not like the change in their routine, which could affect their attitude toward their work. Further, since overnight cases are emergent and come in often, they may struggle with the pace and the ability to perform effectively during the hours they are normally asleep. Lastly, from the hospital staff’s perspective, an inconsistent and unfamiliar flow of radiologists working these shifts is detrimental to the delivery of rapid and appropriate treatment. The care for your family requires collaboration between physicians to reach the correct decisions. This is best facilitated by having doctors who work with each other regularly at night.
For these reasons, we hire our overnight radiologists specifically for these hours rather than rotating our daytime doctors through the night shifts. This ensures the right doctor for the right time, and enables consistency of quality reads and schedule reliability. These physicians are in constant communication and collaboration with our partner hospitals’ nighttime staff, which, in turn, allows for the most accurate imaging reports and fastest turnaround times available.
“[With Diversified Radiology,] our physicians have better communication with radiologists. Our physicians are very happy with the support they receive at any time and the availability of the radiologist. Radiologists are very easy to talk to . . . The staff, as well, is always available and very helpful when we call. We truly feel part of the team.” — Nancy Droste, Radiology Director, Rangely District Hospital; Rangely, CO
In a time when radiology groups are increasingly focusing on the bottom line, Diversified Radiology remains steadfast in keeping patient care at the center of our practice. The reality is… it does matter where you go. Here’s where you will get the same level of service at 3:00 am as you would at 3:00 pm. When you go to your local hospital, you and your family should expect nothing less.
Learn more about our 24/7 coverage model here.
Learn more about what a radiologist does here.