Masters of Radiology Panel Discussion: Defining a Quality Dashboard for Radiology—What Are the Right Metrics?

Abstract

839 that the overwhelming first priority should be safety. Process improvement and satisfaction deal with a variety of issues along the patient side. Ultimately, if we are to believe some of the items in the Affordable Care Act, outcomes and proof that our work impacts outcomes will be important to show. All of this has a cost. You may not know what the cost is when you start, but you are certainly going to have to pay it in time, energy, or money. Norbash: It is interesting that we have approached this whole concept of dashboarding, scorecards, and performance measurement, I think the national tendency is to initially start with some high-order principles in terms of why we are doing this. And in our organization, there are several needs we are trying to address, needs such as improving our reimbursements, creating education that spans different teams or factions that may exist, and creating a unified cohesive sense of direction. Thus, as we focus on those larger needs and look at what the domains can be, quality and safety are a central part of every discussion. But so is patient satisfaction, especially given Press Ganey scores, HCAHPS (Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems), and reimbursement tied specifically to patient satisfaction as an independent domain. Ultimately, it all translates into reimbursements. In our organization and in our department specifically, we have picked certain domains that are sensible, for example, quality, safety, access, operations management, and financial performance. In each of those areas, we have tried to pick things that are sensible to all concerned, not just to administration. Ultimately scorecards only work if you have a larger framework around the housing organization that makes sense and, more important, if the constituent individuals in the organization buy-in to what you are picking. Masters of Radiology Panel Discussion: Defining a Quality Dashboard for Radiology— What Are the Right Metrics?