Providers Rethinking Teleradiology Strategies

    CHICAGO, IL, December 04, 2013 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Some radiology groups are bringing back in-house weekend and night reads while hospitals are looking to save money by contracting directly with a teleradiology vendor. According to a new KLAS report titled Teleradiology 2013: Serving the Emergency Department, as some providers are making these strategy shifts, teleradiology firms need to demonstrate their value through consistent turnaround times, great report quality and overall great service.

Who are the top-performing vendors helping in the strategy shift? KLAS interviewed 213 facilities across the United States to find out. According to providers, StatRad, Rays and TRS are in a tight race for best report quality. These top performers show stellar report quality, and all three have improved in performance since KLAS last took a look in 2011. Providers also shared insight into which vendors are matching their turnaround-time expectations. ONRAD has great turnaround times, but this is not reflected in their overall performance score because they do not set proper expectations. On the other hand, vRad and TRS customers are very pleased with turnaround times that are on average slower than ONRAD's.

"The teleradiology market houses several high-performing vendors," says Brady Heiner, report author and research director for KLAS. "But the real test for vendors in the next year or so will be whether they can stay in line with the quickly changing needs of the radiology groups and hospitals as federal regulations continue to extend their influence throughout healthcare, forcing providers to get creative without sacrificing care."

Speaking to the KLAS research, CEO of ONRAD David Willcutts said, "Addressing the few concerns as to whether teleradiology is a problem can be addressed clearly. We use radiologists that provide quality medical care, whether those radiologists are on-site managing a hospital's physician service or whether they provide teleradiology services for a hospital, medical group or imaging center. It is all about the clinical quality that is delivered, the turnaround time, the use of the right physicians and specialties, and the quality of the services that make it easier to provide great patient care."

The vendors reviewed in this study include Rays, StatRad, Teleradiology Solutions, vRad, AltaVista Radiology (Central), RadNet (Northern), ONRAD (West), NightShift Radiology, Radisphere (mainly ambulatory) and USTeleradiology. To learn more about the vendors in this study, check out the full report, Teleradiology 2013: Serving the Emergency Department. Providers receive a significant discount off the standard retail price or can receive a complimentary summary report in exchange for a survey about one of their current vendors. Visit www.KLASresearch.com/KLASreports.

About KLAS
KLAS is a research firm on a global mission to improve healthcare delivery by enabling providers to be heard and to be counted. Working with thousands of healthcare executives and clinicians, KLAS gathers data on software, services, medical equipment and infrastructure systems to deliver timely reports, trends and statistical overviews. The research directly represents the provider voice and acts as a catalyst for improving vendor performance. KLAS was founded in 1996, and KLAS' staff and advisory board members average 25 years of healthcare information technology experience. For more information, go to www.KLASresearch.com, email [email protected] or call 1-800-920-4109 to speak with a KLAS representative. Follow KLAS on Twitter https://twitter.com/klasresearch

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