Electronic transmission of radiology reports was a key area of focus at the recent Radiology Society of North America (RSNA) annual meeting in Chicago. By sending reports to their referring physicians’ electronic health records (EHR) systems securely and efficiently, radiologists can help satisfy one of the requirements for meaningful use (MU) stage 2 incentives, while also helping referring physicians meet MU criteria.
“Keeping referrers referring is perhaps the key element needed by any radiology practice,” said Steve Hamburg, director of RIS sales for Advanced Data Systems, a provider of cloud/ASP and customer-hosted automation solutions to diagnostic and interventional radiology practices. Hamburg participated in a panel discussion on radiology reports and MU during an RSNA program presented by Kenneth Dreyer, DO, PhD, and RadiologyMU.
“A three-way win scenario for all of the players exists when the radiology practice can securely deliver its reports electronically. The radiology practice, its referring physicians, and their mutual patients all benefit through this type of interoperability,” Hamburg added.
According to Hamburg, in order to remain competitive in today’s environments, radiologists need solutions that allow them to transmit reports effectively without relying on multiple costly interfaces. “Radiologists should be able to provide EHR-agnostic data formats acceptable to any physician’s EHR,” he said. “Opinion and conversation at RSNA indicated that radiology practices unable to provide this type of data delivery capability will no doubt see a dwindling of incoming referrals as patients are redirected by referring physicians to radiology and imaging centers that can provide this efficiency and convenience. For that reason, implementing a reports delivery capability should be a ‘must’ on any radiology administrator’s to-do list for 2015.”
For more information about Advanced Data Systems and its PACS-compatible MedicsRIS system, visit ADS.
