Operational Radiology Recovery in Academic Radiology Departments After the COVID-19 Pandemic: Moving Toward Normalcy.

This article presents a current snapshot in time, describing how radiology departments around the country are planning recovery from the baseline of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, with a focus on different domains of recovery such as managing appointment availability, patient safety and workflow changes, and operational data and analytics. An e-mail survey was sent through the Society of Chairs of Academic Radiology Departments list server to 114 academic radiology departments. On the basis of data reported by the 38 survey respondents, best practices and shared experience are described for three key areas: (1) planning for recovery, (2) creating a new normal, and (3) measuring and forecasting. Radiology practices should be aware of the common approaches and preparations academic radiology departments have taken to reopening imaging in the post-coronavirus disease 2019 world. This should all be done when maintaining a safe and patient-centric environment and preparing to minimize the impact of future outbreaks or pandemics.

Reducing barriers to timely MR imaging scheduling.

Scheduling a magnetic resonance (MR) imaging study at the authors' large health system in 2011 required considerable preparation before an appointment time was given to a patient. Difficulties in promptly scheduling appointments resulted from the varying time required for examinations, depending on the requested protocol, availability of appropriate MR imaging equipment, examination timing, prior insurance authorization verification, and proper patient screening. These factors contributed to a backlog of patients to schedule that regularly exceeded 300. A multidisciplinary process-improvement team was assembled to improve the turnaround time for scheduling an outpatient MR imaging examination (the interval between the time when the order was received and the time when the patient was informed about the MR imaging appointment). Process improvements targeted by the team included protocol turnaround time, schedule standardization, schedule intervals, examination timing, service standards, and scheduling redesign. Using lean methods and multiple plan-do-check-act cycles, the time to schedule an outpatient MR imaging examination improved from 117 hours to 33 hours, a 72% reduction, during the 9-month study period in 2011-2012. The number of patients in the scheduling queue was reduced by 90%. Overall MR imaging examinations within the specific patient population studied increased from 773 patient studies during the first month of intervention to 1444 studies the following month and averaged over 1279 patient studies per month throughout the study.