Amna A Ajam1, Xuan V Nguyen2, Ronda A Kelly2, Joseph A Ladapo3, Elvira V Lang4. 1. Department of Radiology, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, Columbus, Ohio. Electronic address: amna.ajam@osumc.edu. 2. Department of Radiology, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, Columbus, Ohio. 3. Division of General Internal Medicine and Health Services Research, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, California. 4. Hypnalgesics, Brookline, Massachusetts.
Abstract
PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to assess the effects of team training on operational efficiency during outpatient MRI. METHODS: In this institutional review board-approved, HIPAA-compliant study, six MRI outpatient sites of a midwestern hospital system were randomized to serve as controls or have their teams trained in advanced communication skills. The fourth quarter of fiscal year 2015 was the trial baseline. The trial ended in the third quarter (Q3) of fiscal year 2016 (FY16). Equipment utilization (completed scans/available slots), hourly scan rates (total orders completed per machine per hour of operation), and no-show rates stratified by time were analyzed using the Cochran-Mantel-Haenszel method, with individual comparisons performed with Bonferroni correction. RESULTS: The study encompassed 27,425 MRI examinations. Overall volume peaked at baseline and then declined over the following quarters. Compared with baseline, untrained sites experienced significant drops in equipment utilization (P < .01 for the first quarter of FY16 and P < .0001 for the second quarter of FY16 and Q3 FY16), decreasing from 77% to 65% over the study period, corresponding to a decrease from 1.15 to 0.97 in hourly scan rates. For trained sites, these metrics showed no significant change, with maintenance of hourly scan rates of 1.23 and 1.27 and equipment utilization rates of 83% and 85% between baseline and Q3 FY16. No-show rates remained stable at trained sites but increased at untrained sites in the last two quarters (P < .05). Nationally benchmarked patient satisfaction percentile ranking gradually increased at trained sites from 56th at baseline to 70th and successively decreased at untrained sites from 66th to 44th. CONCLUSIONS: MRI outpatient facilities trained in advanced communication techniques may have more favorable operational efficiency than untrained sites in a saturated market.
RCT Entities:
PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to assess the effects of team training on operational efficiency during outpatient MRI. METHODS: In this institutional review board-approved, HIPAA-compliant study, six MRI outpatient sites of a midwestern hospital system were randomized to serve as controls or have their teams trained in advanced communication skills. The fourth quarter of fiscal year 2015 was the trial baseline. The trial ended in the third quarter (Q3) of fiscal year 2016 (FY16). Equipment utilization (completed scans/available slots), hourly scan rates (total orders completed per machine per hour of operation), and no-show rates stratified by time were analyzed using the Cochran-Mantel-Haenszel method, with individual comparisons performed with Bonferroni correction. RESULTS: The study encompassed 27,425 MRI examinations. Overall volume peaked at baseline and then declined over the following quarters. Compared with baseline, untrained sites experienced significant drops in equipment utilization (P < .01 for the first quarter of FY16 and P < .0001 for the second quarter of FY16 and Q3 FY16), decreasing from 77% to 65% over the study period, corresponding to a decrease from 1.15 to 0.97 in hourly scan rates. For trained sites, these metrics showed no significant change, with maintenance of hourly scan rates of 1.23 and 1.27 and equipment utilization rates of 83% and 85% between baseline and Q3 FY16. No-show rates remained stable at trained sites but increased at untrained sites in the last two quarters (P < .05). Nationally benchmarked patient satisfaction percentile ranking gradually increased at trained sites from 56th at baseline to 70th and successively decreased at untrained sites from 66th to 44th. CONCLUSIONS: MRI outpatient facilities trained in advanced communication techniques may have more favorable operational efficiency than untrained sites in a saturated market.
Authors: Robert J McDonald; Kara M Schwartz; Laurence J Eckel; Felix E Diehn; Christopher H Hunt; Brian J Bartholmai; Bradley J Erickson; David F Kallmes Journal: Acad Radiol Date: 2015-07-22 Impact factor: 3.173
Authors: Jalal B Andre; Brian W Bresnahan; Mahmud Mossa-Basha; Michael N Hoff; C Patrick Smith; Yoshimi Anzai; Wendy A Cohen Journal: J Am Coll Radiol Date: 2015-05-09 Impact factor: 5.532
Authors: Elvira V Lang; William T C Yuh; Amna Ajam; Ronda Kelly; Luke Macadam; Richard Potts; Nina A Mayr Journal: AJR Am J Roentgenol Date: 2013-12 Impact factor: 3.959
Authors: Marie C Haverfield; Aaron Tierney; Rachel Schwartz; Michelle B Bass; Cati Brown-Johnson; Dani L Zionts; Nadia Safaeinili; Meredith Fischer; Jonathan G Shaw; Sonoo Thadaney; Gabriella Piccininni; Karl A Lorenz; Steven M Asch; Abraham Verghese; Donna M Zulman Journal: J Gen Intern Med Date: 2020-01-09 Impact factor: 5.128