The NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement has sent trusts in England a new radiology kit to help departments improve their booking processes and reduce waiting times.
Transforming your Radiology Services Kit: Focus on Booking Processes, intends to reduce the long waiting times often caused by a bottleneck in patient pathways as part of the 33 million examinations that are performed with diagnostic imaging every year.
The kit allows staff to review and assess their booking processes by identifying areas for development, including where technological solutions could be used to improve the system.
Kit resource materials were developed following 12 months of research and pilots by the NHS Institute’s Delivering Quality and Value team.
Robin Evans, NHS Institute’s lead clinician for the project and a consultant radiologist at Mayday Healthcare NHS Trust, said: “During our observations it became rapidly clear that booking processes vary a great deal between trusts, not only between radiology units, but also between modalities within the same department.
“It was therefore decided to develop a specific tool to help departments rapidly map and assess their booking processes against current best practice. We’ve seen how this kit helps trusts to provide solutions and action plans for greater efficiency.”
Last week, NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement invited trusts to a one day event to support staff in implementing the kit.
Helen Crick, co-production manager at the Institute, told E-Health Insider: “More than 40 trusts attended the event and carried out a mini pilot of the kit. The demand was so high that we have had to add another event.”
The institute will shortly be asking people to vote on the reporting methods used in radiology departments with a view to develop another similar kit.
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