Delivery of Appropriateness, Quality, Safety, Efficiency and Patient Satisfaction

Abstract

Although radiology’s dramatic evolution over the last century has profoundly affected patient care for the better, the current system is too fragmented and many providers focus more on technology and physician needs rather than what really matters to patients: better value and outcomes. This latter dynamic is aligned with current national health care reform initiatives and creates both challenges andopportunitiesforradiologiststo find ways to deliver new value for patients. The ACR has responded to this challenge with the introduction of Imaging 3.0 TM , which represents a call to action to all radiologists to assume leadership roles in shaping America’s future health care system through 5 key pillars: imaging appropriateness, quality, safety, efficiency, and satisfaction. That enhanced value will require modulation of imaging work processes best understood through the concept of the imaging value chain, which is introduced in this first of a 7-part series. Further articles will then prescribe in detail the pathway forward at each link in the value chain to effect the work process changes necessary for radiologists to deliver better value and outcomes for patients.