Case Study: Southeastern Academic Medical Center Elevates Patient and Physician Satisfaction with Outpatient Imaging Services
In the highly competitive healthcare landscape, patient and physician satisfaction plays a pivotal role in maintaining imaging revenue and minimizing patient leakage from health systems.
At this southeastern academic medical center (AMC), a prominent player in the state, there were mounting concerns from physicians across various specialties. Significant imaging backlogs and service quality issues were jeopardizing the AMC’s brand and reputation. Physicians were becoming increasingly dissatisfied with the quality of imaging care offered and capacity constraints. As a result, referrals were leaving the system and patients were seeking care elsewhere.
Read on to discover how engaging in a strategic joint venture (JV) partnership to develop high-quality outpatient imaging facilities helped this southeastern AMC address issues with capacity constraints, operational challenges, and service quality.
Situation
While the AMC’s executive team were aware of their issues with imaging, they did not have the time and expertise to streamline imaging operations, and as a result, the AMC faced challenges in increasing patient throughput. The AMC recognized the need to address these pressing challenges and engaged in a strategic radiology joint venture (JV) partnership with Outpatient Imaging Affiliates (OIA) to develop and operate high-quality outpatient imaging facilities designed to tackle these pivotal issues.
Outcome
The AMC contributed their outpatient imaging center to the JV partnership and OIA contributed capital in proportion to ownership. The capital from OIA was used to increase the capacity of the center. OIA’s imaging and management expertise further corrected the center’s productivity and service quality issues.
Today, OIA operates four joint ventured outpatient imaging locations on behalf of the AMC. This partnership enabled several key improvements:
Expanded Capacity: OIA helped increase imaging capacity to meet rising demand.
Operational Excellence: Flexible staffing, extended center hours, and expanded imaging modality offerings improved operational efficiency.
Scheduling: OIA streamlined the patient scheduling processes to improve satisfaction. OIA now currently schedules hospital-based outpatient radiology as well.
By addressing capacity constraints, operational challenges, and service quality, the AMC was able to maintain its reputation, improve physician retention, and better serve patients. These enhancements empowered physicians to confidently refer patients, allowed for quick and convenient scheduling, and elevated both patient and physician satisfaction scores.
The partnership continues to flourish as the Southeastern AMC and OIA continue to partner to meet growing patient demand and adapt to emerging market challenges.
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