In discussing safe ways to place inferior vena cava filters with my IR colleagues in SR, we found that we could do this on completely anti-coagulated patients if we used the jugular vein and ultrasound for guidance. There is no need to stop the patient’s anticoagulation medicine due to the risk of puncturing the femoral artery during venous catheterization. It’s been a huge advantage for patients, referrers, and our practices.
I recently hired a Director of Business Intelligence, and we visited another SR member practice with expertise in data analytics to establish an ongoing dialogue regarding best practices. This depth of collaboration is the essence of Strategic Radiology.
We have saved more than seven figures in just having those opportunities of group purchasing available to us from all the different contracts SR has with various vendors.
The ability to access the expertise of radiology groups from across the country—some with more than 100 FTE radiologists and huge infrastructures of support—has been very valuable to us in terms of best practices, peer-to-peer interactions, and really leveraging what they’ve learned in their parts of the country and bringing it back to what we do.
One of the most valuable benefits of being part of Strategic Radiology has been new initiatives that we've put into place, including a relationship management program that was a collaboration among several SR groups. We were able to replicate a score card that had metrics and other different points of interest—it has been remarkable how well that was received.
The most valuable aspect has been the collegiality and interaction with physicians and administrators from the other groups. We learn from them, we discuss difficult issues with them—administrative, patient care, business issues—and how we can improve all of our groups working together.
Immediately on association with Strategic Radiology, we were able to achieve discounts through group purchasing. Not only can we save money above our membership fees in Strategic Radiology, but we also are able to leverage the combined expertise of the Strategic Radiology members to help us purchase the right products.
Before joining Strategic Radiology, we were engaged in quality improvement, but we didn’t have an overarching quality program. Once we joined, we saw what other groups were doing, and we were inspired to have a dedicated program within our group: We hired a quality manager, created an internal quality committee, and since then, we’ve become a leader in SR’s Quality Program.
Strategic Radiology is just scratching the surface on our data aggregation projects. Today we aggregate revenue cycle data, financial data, physician productivity data. Now we are beginning to aggregate clinical data in an effort to automate quality reporting.
Strategic Radiology is a coalition of independent, private radiology practices representing more than 1,500 radiologists. We collaborate to improve quality, service, and efficiency through data aggregation, IT, and performance improvement. Contact Dan Schriger, Membership Director, dschriger@strategicradiology.org, or click below.
