Teleradiology is helping physicians stay safe during the pandemic while also ensuring imaging departments run smoothly. And recently a group of MRI specialists said it’s time the field extends this benefit to non-medical radiology personnel.
Drawing on their own experiences during COVID-19, the experts urged departments to enable remote working capabilities for scheduling, operations, human resources, marketing, and billing staff, among others.
The move would allow individuals to abide by social distancing guidelines and may also lead to unexpected efficiency gains, Antonio Luna, with HT Medica’s MRI Unit in Jaén, Spain, and colleagues explained in European Radiology.
“Telework goes beyond conventional teleradiology and may be applied to other radiology department areas, maintaining activity and even increasing productivity in other areas such as administrative, operations, education, and research units or updating strategies for optimizing workflow and safety policies,” the authors wrote.
Practice type, staffing and workflow requirements will dictate what individual departments can achieve, and the transition to a full teleworking experience won’t be easy, the researchers explained.
A strong IT infrastructure is key and must include remote access to admission, discharge, and transfer systems, as well as electronic health records, billing, and patient throughput, safety and experience systems.
What will it take to get there? Buy-in and collaboration from all radiology department members is a must. Direct communication is important to minimize confusion and prevent isolation. And allowing flexible scheduling is also particularly important given that many remote workers have children to care for at home.
Luna et al. maintained that it will be impossible for some staff, such as nursing or reception, to transition toward full-time remote working, but emphasized radiology departments should help create as safe of an environment as possible.
“In our opinion, teleworking is allowing reduction of the impact of COVID-19 outbreak and preserve healthcare-related activities in radiology departments including workload,” the team added. “All these efforts in establishing and adapting resources for teleworking during COVID-19 crisis are expected to be positive for radiology departments and its workforce in the short term.”
Matt joined Chicago’s TriMed team in 2018 covering all areas of health imaging after two years reporting on the hospital field. He holds a bachelor’s in English from UIC, and enjoys a good cup of coffee and an interesting documentary.