TelemedProviders

For any Healthcare facility providing services 24/7, having qualified full-time employees to cover all the 24 working hours per day is a real challenge. For the medical staff working for long hours and night shifts is a regular thing but for the supporting staff it's an issue that always needs a second thought. Not everybody is able to work after-hours and overnight shifts on daily basis including weekends and holidays, especially if the job package and benefits are not so attractive.

From the facility's point of view, attractive salaries and benefits offered to full-time employees to work in after-hours and overnight shifts represents a huge increase in expenses beside the difficulty to find qualified employees to fill these positions. Our cost-effective ROC service is the ultimate solution for such problem.

The Client:

One of the leading Radiology Centers in US providing after-hours and overnight Teleradiology services for multiple hospitals and medical centers including ER coverage. The regular working hours for the center are 7 AM to 5 PM. The ER Teleradiology service starts from 5 PM to 7 AM next day.

The Challenge:

The center coordinators are responsible for data entry and order creation for imaging studies sent to their PACS. They are also responsible for answering the coming calls and relaying messages to the radiologists and also communicating with the client facilities regarding any missing patient information or imaging sequences.

During the first half of the shift workflow is too high and the center had to hire two full-time employees to work from 5 PM to12 PM. From 12 PM to 7 AM, only one coordinator can handle the workflow as the number of cases is usually much lesser.

The Project:

Telemed Providers was hired to provide its Radiology Operations Control services which include:

1. Study validation, Images and faxed request sheet review and order entry: By reviewing every set of images and request sheet, only complete studies are sent to the radiologists which saves the radiologist's time and increases efficiency.
2. Communication with clients: Our ROC agents receive and answer clients' inquiries and also communicate with them regarding any missing patient information or imaging sequences.
3. System Monitoring: When providing ER coverage, TAT has to be taken seriously as any delay in the report can directly threaten the patient's life, ROC agent's main responsibility is to keep monitoring the system continuously to make sure that reports are sent as fast as possible and solve any problems that can cause any delay.

After the initial phase of evaluation, Telemed Providers recommended to assign 2 ROC agents to cover the first half of the shift (5 PM - 12 PM) and one ROC agent for the second half (12 PM - 7 AM).  These agents were assigned to work at Telemed Providers office, which reduced the running expenses of the Radiology Center to around 44%.  Moreover the savings on fixed costs, insurances, overheads, space and other employee benefits reduced their cost to another 13% on annual basis ending up to a final saving of 57% of their radiology operations.

The Result:

Telemed Providers has been able to handle and manage all the workflow through the after-hours and overnight shifts successfully with about 57% saving for the center. The client is extremely happy with the quality. The client recommended us to their other colleagues hence generating us business leads.