As a past Research Director for KLAS Research I’ve been asked about the decision I made to come to StatRad.  In my four years at KLAS I headed up the research and consulting of several areas within the radiology space.  My favorite was teleradiology. My work consisted of helping improve healthcare by honestly, accurately, and impartially measuring vendor performance.  I became aware of the very limited amount of dollars in healthcare and formed the personal goal of seeing that those dollars were spent in the best possible way.  I consulted with hospital departments, radiology groups, large health systems, and various medical societies to ensure that they made the most informed decisions possible.  I headed up performance studies and published reports to ensure that the data was readily available to all providers. While there, I published two teleradiology performance studies and consulted with numerous groups and facilities looking to make teleradiology decisions.

At RSNA in 2011, I had an opportunity to work with a provider who I will never forget.  He was looking to make a very large ultrasound purchase for his health system.  The company, and the product he was considering, had struggled with reliability, which I had published in a report on ultrasound. Due to research, we had validated that many of the issues had been corrected.  As I met with this provider and showed him a trend chart that displayed improved satisfaction by the company’s customers, he made a comment that settled very heavily on me, “I can appreciate that they’ve corrected a very large problem.  But, the fact remains that this is a company that allowed their customers to experience a great deal of frustration and pain for a very long time.  Why would I want to trust that they wouldn’t make a decision that would impact their customers negatively again?”

As I considered companies to partner with for the next stage of my career, I took many things into consideration.  I looked at the stability of organizations, the leadership, what I’d heard their customers personally tell me about their experience with them, and ultimately what I could bring to the table in any organization. Teleradiology is my greatest passion, and having spent years studying the performance of these organizations I had quite a bit of information to pull from.

I thought of one smaller teleradiology firm that had shown very good performance, but their leadership team consisted solely of one owner/medical director.  I knew from the research I’d done at KLAS that the lack of a team of leaders had left the head of the company stretched too thin and I’d begun to hear rumblings from customers about how that was impacting them.  When I thought of the possibility of joining a larger company, I remembered the comment above made by a provider considering ultrasound…  The larger company had made several decisions over the past year that had equated to massive frustrations and pains for their customers.  How could I trust a company who had made decisions that had so poorly impacted their partners?

When I considered StatRad, there were three key points that were very attractive to me: they had a very strong leadership team, they were not owned by an investment firm or large company, and I knew from my research at KLAS that quality was very important to them.  I also knew StatRad was poised for growth (based on research I’d done while at KLAS) due to the failures of the larger company.  StatRad, with a strong leadership team was poised to grow successfully,  without negatively impacting their current customers. 

It is a joy to be part of an organization that so sincerely cares.

Emily Crane

If you had a lifelong friend who had spare keys to your home, and you had a collection of priceless jewels, would you think twice about taking those keys back if your friend married a known jewel thief? Or worse yet, he’d been convicted of stealing jewels himself? The answer is that you would snatch the keys back as soon as possible.
What’s this have to do with Teleradiology? It comes down to this: What Teleradiology is supposed to do for you. A teleradiology partner helps a private radiology group enhance the service to the hospital. A national radiology group seeks to provide full radiology services directly to the hospital, and in many instances night reads are just a point of entry.
Most private groups would not allow a competing group “keys” to their hospital. How can you tell if your teleradiology “partner” has become a national radiology group? What should make you snatch those keys back?

Questions to consider:

• Does your teleradiology partner provide onsite radiology at any facilities?
• Do they list onsite radiology as an offering on their literature or website?
• Does your teleradiology partner have an affiliation or partnership with any group that provides onsite radiology?
• Does your teleradiology partner describe themselves as a “national radiology group?”
• Does your teleradiology partner seem to speak more to hospital administration than to your private radiology group?
• Does their website seem geared toward hospital administration or health systems?
• Have they developed unique terminology for the onsite radiology they provide?
• Has your teleradiology partner offered pricing directly to the hospital or health system without your express ok?

StatRad provides the highest quality teleradiology in the industry and ONLY teleradiology. It is time to reevaluate who to trust with your “keys.”

Even being new to StatRad it is easy to see why StatRad is so sought after by groups looking to replace their current teleradiology company or the teleradiology company that acquired them.  While it seems simple, there are three very key ingredients to our success and we won’t ever compromise on a single one:

Quality:

Our physicians are rigorously screened and are some of the most qualified, well trained radiologists IN THE COUNTRY.  Yes, in the country – which has become quite rare.   We have a commitment to quality radiology as a medical practice just like you, and our radiologists have a commitment to quality as individuals.  A large number of our physicians are fellowship trained in MRI by UCSD’s Dr. Bill Bradley.  Our accuracy rate in MRI is accurate to the phenomenal .003%.

Speed:

Every  minute counts when it comes to patient lives.  We monitor our turnaround times to ensure they are not only the best in the business, but to ensure that they’re better than any hospital ED could need them to be.  We’re fast, but we’re also reliable.   We don’t take on business that would impede the turnaround times you expect from us.  We don’t make excuses or promises that things will improve — we don’t need to.

Loyalty:

We love Radiology.  We are loyal to our clients.  We will not take business from you.  Not as part of an alliance, not as part of a “national radiology group,” not as part of another radiology group.  We do not place physicians on site, period.  As our client we commit this to you in writing.  Ask about our Declaration of Commitment: http://www.statrad.com/tele.html

If your teleradiology provider has you questioning their quality, their speed, or their loyalty please call and speak with us.  Ask yourself how many more times you can hear promises or excuses and still feel like you’re doing the best for your group and for the patients you serve.

Emily Crane

Director of Communications and Marketing

Follow @StatRad

Technology is certainly making the world smaller—and in teleradiology, it creates efficiencies that impact patient care. As radiology groups look to use teleradiology services to provide around-the-clock coverage to hospitals, it’s important to determine which providers are able to put technology to work for you. The key is to recognize that every practice is different. As a result, it’s imperative to assess your prospective teleradiology provider’s ability to customize its technology to meet your needs. How do you do this? The first step is to verify that the provider you’re considering owns its teleradiology software. This is important because your provider must be able to add custom features based on your business model. Certain out-of-the box platforms provide a degree of customization; however, a company that builds its technology from the ground up is able to tailor it to a greater extend—and in today’s marketplace, there’s no reason to settle for anything less.