Providing the highest level of diagnostic imaging where quality is first and foremost.

Desert Radiologists prides itself on its subspecialty expertise and fast turnaround of reports to its referring physicians.

Founded in 1966, Desert Radiologists, located in Las Vegas, NV, has been servicing hospitals since 1971. The radiology group’s mission, according to William Moore, chief executive officer, is to provide the “highest level of diagnostic imaging available where quality is first and foremost.”

“We define quality as report turnaround, thoroughness, the ability to find abnormalities, and the delivery of accurate reports to referring physicians and patients,” said Moore, who believes that Desert Radiologists’ greatest strengths are its highly-trained radiologists and the significant volume of studies they complete.

The patient and referring physician populations served by Desert Radiologists reside primarily in Southern Nevada, which is also home to a variety of casinos, online clothing retailer Zappos.com, and Nellis Air Force Base.

“An area where Desert Radiologists truly stands out is our ability to respond to complaints in less than 24 hours — and those complaints can be escalated to me or to other members of the executive team,” said Moore.

The practice, which will soon employ 48 radiologists, also has great depth in terms of subspecialty coverage, says Moore.

“Our radiologists are highly subspecialized. What that means, for example, is we can handle the very difficult oncological or musculoskeletal cases because we have the specialists who can read those cases. In addition, our radiologists are cross-trained so they can cover the practice at any time, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year,” said Moore.

Rather than outsourcing preliminary reads to another practice at night or on the weekends, Desert Radiologists provides all of its interpretation services in-house. In addition, Moore notes that the practice provides teleradiology services to other healthcare facilities around the country, through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Desert Radiology Solutions, LLC.

“One of the reasons our radiology group is growing is our radiologists deliver great satisfaction to our referring physicians. That’s due, in large part, to a single unified worklist from which our radiologists read, across 54 sites of service,” said Moore.

“A single unified worklist is important because it means that all studies are prioritized and every exam is read in a timely manner. Stat cases are automatically escalated to the top of the worklist, and other studies are interpreted on a first-in/first-out basis,” he said.

Desert Radiologists measures its report turnaround in terms of minutes — not hours, says Moore. “Due to the nature of our hospital related business, many of our reports are turned around in under 15 minutes,” said Moore, who notes that most reports are available in under an hour.

Some of the healthcare facilities served by Desert Radiologists include University Medical Center (UMC), which features a level-one trauma center, five Valley Health System Hospitals (which is owned by University Health Services), and several rural hospitals.

Moore notes that four of Desert Radiologists’ physicians were recently named “Top Doctors” by Las Vegas Life magazine. “To have four Desert Radiologists’ physicians included on the annual ‘Top Doctors’ list is certainly gratifying. It acknowledges our commitment to providing our patients with the highest quality of diagnostic care,” he said.

Referring physicians send patients to Desert Radiologists because of established relationships with our radiologists, says Moore. “Our radiologists are accessible and take part in providing doctor-to-doctor marketing and consultations — this engenders trust among our radiologists and referring physicians.

“Our proactive quality assurance program is another reason referring physicians continue to stay loyal to our group,” said Moore. “To ensure quality, we pull studies on a random basis — and they are over-read by another radiologist to ensure concurrence.”

Moore also notes that Desert Radiologists was an early adopter of ACR accreditation. “Back in the early 1990s, long before they began accrediting on a modality basis, we worked with ACR to provide data on breast imaging and hosted site visits. Desert Radiologists has always been accredited, ever since ACR started accreditation,” he said.

Desert Radiologists
2020 Palomino Lane, Suite 100
Las Vegas, NV 89106
(702) 759-8600
www.DesertRad.com