Overview

Imaging Fusion identified five separate and distinct domains in medical imaging

• Human Resources
• Operations
• Information Technology
• Compliance
• Finance

Within those five domains are numerous other niche-areas of expertise. For example, within the Finance domain, maintaining a charge master is distinctly different from managing denials. Finding one imaging manager with economic expertise in both is unlikely. In addition, finding one manager with clinical expertise across multipledomains is difficult at best.

Commonly hospitals use consultants for special projects like CMS’s Core Measures, Joint Commission readiness or technology-assessment. Consultants report their findings, provide a set of action-items and their responsibilities end. Imaging Fusion feels this method  leaves much to be desired. With the right tools, every hospital/imaging center can have an effective, efficient, innovative, and forward-thinker as their Imaging Director.

Imaging Fusion created a software called ProFusion. ProFusion uses one standard set of Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) to provide evidence which answers, “How is your imaging department performing? Where is it going? How do you know?”

Under different titles, the same set of KPI’s are used in most hospitals and imaging centers. ProFusion provides details, tracking, analysis, trends and cost comparisons, which define your imaging department’s performance. ProFusion clearly demonstrates how your performance compares with your own budget and industry averages.

Sample scenario:Two similar imaging departments have 88% customer service ratings, 5% volume growth for the last three consecutive years, are within 80% of the median productivity, have turnaround times at 24 hours and both hospital CEOs are totally satisfied with their imaging departments.

However, when using ProFusion every month, significant areas for improvement were found. Both hospitals may have had 5% volume growth, but Hospital A had a 35% denial rate and Hospital B had $400,000.00 worth of bill-holds due to incomplete documentation. Hospital A had a 58 hour turnaround time in mammography, while Hospital B had an 18 hour delay at the Radiologist Sign Off step. Hospital A’s Emergency Room patients account for 30% of their volume, while Hospital B’s Emergency Room accounts for 45% of imaging’s volume. Hospital A spent $6,000,000.00 to perform 100,000 exams. Hospital B spent $8,000,000.00 to perform the same volume. And these are just a few of the discoveries found when we stop blindly managing in a silo. ProFusion software creates industry standards where there are none today.

“Tacit” work is described by researcher McKinsey to be work with complex interactions, needing a higher level of judgment, drawing on experiential knowledge. Tacit work has 50% greater variability in performance than non-tacit work. Imaging Fusion has demonstrated time and time again it is the variability in imaging management that is so expensive yet so easily corrected. A subscription to ProFusion gives you the tools to eliminate the wide swings in variability.