Category: Teleradiology

Teleradiology company, Vesta: Preliminary and final interpretations, day and night, and even on holidays. Subspecialty solutions.

Recent Developments in Covid-19

The Covid-19 pandemic has partially crippled the world as we once knew it. Everyone has experienced taking precautions, isolating, vaccinations, and boosters for over two years. Are we making progress?

The contagious virus SARS-CoV-2, also named Covid-19, has been responsible for over 970,000 deaths in the United States alone. New variants have emerged from the virus, but there appear to be fewer cases overall.

Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna have been the leading pharmaceutical companies providing preventative vaccinations and vaccine boosters, and Johnson & Johnson has also joined the team for preventive immunizations.

The immunizations and boosters administered have been very effective even though there have been breakthroughs of covid-positive cases. The hospitalization of those patients who tested positive for Covid-19 reduced drastically for the fully vaccinated adults.

This year, both Pfizer and Moderna have requested authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for an additional booster to their immunization. The requests were based on the success of the second booster in other countries. The goal is to offer maximum protection to high-risk patients–including adults over the age of 65 and adults with immune-suppressive medical conditions.

The best way anyone can reduce their risk of getting the disease is by getting Covid-19 vaccinations and all the boosters available. The Center for Disease Control’s consistent message to stay healthy continues to be to wear masks in highly populated indoor locations, keep at least 6 feet from others, avoid heavy crowds, and wash our hands.

The Center for Disease Control (CDC) still requires face masks on public transportation like buses, planes, and trains. Because of our advancements in the Covid-19 battle, many state legislations have lifted the face mask requirements for restaurants and shopping.

 

2022 covid news
Face masks have become the norm

 

Covid testing kits are available from the federal government. Any household in the United States can order up to four rapid tests from www.covidtests.gov or by calling 1-800-232-0233. Medicare beneficiaries can receive up to eight free at-home Covid-19 tests per month in 2022.

In February 2022, the FDA approved a new monoclonal antibody treatment that has shown positive results during treatment against the omicron variant and the omicron sub-variant of Covid-19. This treatment is called Bebtelovimab and is for both adults and children at high risk for severe illness from the Covid-19 variants.

Clinics and Long-Term Care Facilities

Beginning in March 2022, pharmacy-based clinics and long-term care facilities will be able to provide an anti-viral pill for positive-tested individuals. The CDC expects this new “Test to Treat” program to provide immediate help to individuals at high risk and who live in the communities with the most cases.

Even taking all the precautions, some people will come down with Covid-19. There have been various symptoms reported, and these symptoms usually appear within two to fourteen days after exposure. Some of the signs to look out for are:

  • Fever or chills
  • Consistent cough
  • Difficulty breathing or shortness of breath
  • Congestion or runny nose
  • Body aches and pains
  • Sore Throat
  • Headache
  • Loss of taste or smell
  • Fatigue
  • Nausea or vomiting
  • Diarrhea

If anyone who tests positive with Covid-19 exposes you or if you test positive, CDC advises you to quarantine for at least five days and wear a mask for at least ten days.

 

covid symptoms
Those who are positive for COVID need to quarantine

Most patients who test positive with Covid-19 recover at home with rest and plenty of fluids. It is wise for a Covid-positive patient to seek medical or emergency help if they become confused or disoriented, have pale or blue-colored skin, lips, or nail beds, cannot stay awake, or have pain or pressure in the chest.

Hospitals and research centers are paying attention to the long-term effects of Covid-19. From statistics provided to the CDC, approximately one-third of the Covid-19 patients have lasting symptoms. The CDC recommends seeking medical advice for treatment.

Prevention is key to getting through this challenging time of Covid-19 infections. Taking extra precautions while traveling and visiting others can help each individual and help those who are high-risk stay free from the disease.

We are making progress on overcoming Covid-19. We will save more lives in the battle if we continue practicing preventive measures and stay educated about the most recent findings.

Trends in Ambulatory Care

When an emergency happens, riding in an ambulance may be necessary. Life may be at stake, and the ambulance must get the patient to the hospital as quickly as possible to receive care. Many people understand the ambulance ride is a transitional time, and the medical care begins once the patient arrives at the hospital. That is why they have to hurry. Cars on the road stop or slow down, understanding the urgency.

In recent years, this has changed. Although typically, an ambulance transports a patient, that is not the only thing it does. Some treatments can be performed while riding inside the ambulance on the way to the hospital.

diagnostic imaging
Some ambulances offer imaging tests

First, CT scanners onboard ambulances have been assessing patients for stroke for many years. An ambulatory stroke center allows treatment to begin before the patient arrives at the hospital, saving precious time. In addition, consultation with a doctor through telemedicine while in an ambulance also aids in treatment. The care offered in these mobile units saves time which has been shown to prevent further damage to the brain.

Second, the practice of diagnostic imaging performed by non-radiologists on an ambulance has grown. In addition to stroke evaluation, ultrasonography of the airways, breathing, circulation, disability, and environment/exposure (ABCDE) has advanced. New ultrasound devices and other diagnostic imaging technology have allowed healthcare professionals to discern needed medical services during ambulatory and aeromedical transport. The information gained through this diagnostic approach supports the care team’s decisions regarding the best treatment and destination.

Third, patient safety awareness has improved. Now the ambulance transport experience can be less stressful. Specific steps keep the patient, family, and staff working together for a successful transition to a care facility. This collaboration entails screening the patient and conferring with the family to identify high-risk priorities and symptoms for the plan of care. Asking the patient their preferences, values, and goals can allow a sense of ownership to the patient fostering their sense of involvement with their transport. Hospital staff discussing paperwork with the family caregivers and patient promotes communication, continuity, and a sense of trust. Educating the family and patient about how the transport will be coordinated helps maintain relationships with all involved and provides a secure and seamless ambulatory experience.

Over the past decade, the information management and care coordination associated with ambulance transport has increased. Due to diagnostic imaging and a shifting focus on ambulance capability, a pre-hospital point of care culture has evolved. This focus has aided prompt and appropriate medical care and improved patient quality of life.

ambulance care 

Radiology and Diagnostic Imaging

If you are concerned that your ambulance unit cannot support the amount of time it takes to review screening results, that’s where Vesta comes in. With over 15 years of experience, Vesta provides telemedicine and teleradiology services to fill in those gaps for your healthcare facility and ambulatory units. With 24 x 7, 365 year round service, Vesta Teleradiology employs US Board Certified radiologists to receive and expertly interpret ambulance diagnostic imaging.

Patient Safety Awareness Week: What Can Imaging Centers Do?

The foundation of health care lies with a diagnosis. Sometimes, medical professionals have barriers to providing an accurate diagnosis because they do not have the lab space or time.

This is where medical imaging centers offer invaluable assistance.

What are Imaging Centers?

Imaging centers are medical facilities run by board-certified and trained radiologists, emphasizing diagnostic and preventive healthcare. They provide a host of diagnostic tools and scans to protect and maintain your health by detecting health issues in their early stages.

What Can Imaging Centers Do?

Medical imaging centers use imaging diagnostic tools, and early-detection radiology scans to provide the following preventative screening services:

Heart Scan: This exam is a pain-free, non-invasive, highly accurate scan that only takes five minutes.

Lung Scan: Those who have ever smoked may be at higher risk for lung cancer, which can be detected with a low radiation scan.

Virtual Colonoscopy: This minimally invasive and accurate scan should be done every five years, and it is so gentle that patients do not require anesthesia.

Diagnostic Tools

Imaging centers have various tools and scans that allow physicians to monitor your health and notice potential problems. These machines often include:

X-Rays: Most people have taken at least one x-ray in their lifetime, typically at the dentist or hospital. They are a non-invasive and pain-free procedure that gives doctors a look inside the body.

 

MRI: A magnetic resonance imaging scan is another non-invasive diagnostic tool that creates images of your body’s internal systems using radio waves and magnets. MRIs are usually more detailed and are a safe way to diagnose and prevent issues. 

 

CT scan: Computed tomography scan works in tandem with specialized x-ray equipment and state-of-the-art computer systems to produce highly detailed images of the inside of the body, which can be used to identify and treat medical conditions.

 

PET/CT scan: A positron emission tomography scan is an imaging test that looks for signs of disease within the body by injecting tracers into the vein and following them under a PET scanner. This is a great way to visualize how well your tissues and organs are functioning.

When you work with an imaging center, you work alongside medical experts, including board-certified cardiologists, radiologists, pathologists, teleradiologists, and other subspecialists.

Benefits of Imaging Centers

The primary benefit of imaging centers is that they help medical professionals to detect and diagnose any disease at its most treatable, early stages. These diagnostic tools are essential in helping patients heal and survive. When you catch a medical issue early, you reduce the need for costly and invasive procedures.

Imaging center employees have the dual responsibility of caring for their patients while advocating for their safety throughout the process. Radiology and diagnostic tools, while minimally invasive, still present specific patient safety issues. Radiologists must ensure that patients and staff are protected from being directly harmed.

Patient Safety Awareness Week

Patient Safety Tips

Imaging centers can increase patient safety by ensuring that the environment is kept sanitary, quiet, with restorative lighting to encourage patient rest.

Creating a safe patient environment involves more than ensuring patient happiness. It involves high-quality patient care that is effective and efficient.

As part of a team caring for patients, radiologists are responsibility for patient safety, which can involve:

Patient safety is a crucial aspect of patient care and involves engaging and educating patients and their families. Health care providers are tasked to listen to their patients to support patient safety initiatives.

 

Teleradiology Services from Vesta

Vesta’s Teleradiology services benefit your healthcare facility because our processes integrate with your workflow. This level of efficiency helps you to better serve your patient with the quality care they need.

Benefits of Teleradiology Services for Urgent Care Facilities

Urgent care facility service use has increased substantially in recent years. Urgent care services’ popularity has provided conveniences and cost reductions of medical care needs.

When a patient enters an urgent care facility, the treating provider determines if radiology services will aid in the diagnosis and treatment plan for the patient. A medical assistant or radiology technician will then use the equipment to produce the radiological images.  

Once the technician creates the radiological images, the treating provider will view and diagnose or send the images to an expert at the teleradiology service contracted with the facility.

Broken bones are not the only reason an urgent care patient may access care at a convenient, local care medical facility. Patients arrive at the facilities for possible strokes, abdominal obstructions, complex pediatric ailments, and other health conditions. Expert radiological assessments can be crucial in practical and immediate treatment.

When a patient who needs radiology services accesses an urgent care facility, fast and professional analysis is essential for effective treatment. 

Teleradiology services have fit in nicely with the goals and objectives of the urgent care facilities for various reasons. Not all patients accessing urgent care need radiology services. Although the service can be life-saving if required, the low rate of use does not warrant the staffing of a full-time radiologist at each facility.

Contracting radiology services for these facilities allows a full-time expert to be available at all times, and these cost savings of a full-time employee are significant.

Teleradiology services allow a physician to access experts anywhere in the country. The pool of providers is not only available at any time, but a radiology expert’s conclusive reports can be sent securely and quickly. 

radiology company
A radiologist reviews an x-ray

If the treating physician has questions about any findings, the radiology expert is easy to reach. This convenience is also possible if the patient or physician requests a second opinion on the results.

With the convenience of radiological expertise availability, urgent care providers can also reduce their professional liability. Providers creating treatment plans for various injuries and symptoms can benefit an urgent care facility contracted with a teleradiological service. Many teleradiology service companies provide a resource for physician consultation. 

Choosing a Teleradiology Company for Your Hospital

Contracting with a teleradiology service can reduce liability for the urgent care facility while increasing and maintaining an excellent public reputation.

The medical care profession has changed drastically over the years, and so have the healthcare consumers. Consumers expect better service, insurance companies expect more conservative costs, and treating physicians need fast results with less liability.

Teleradiology fits nicely into the niche of urgent care facilities because it fits all the criteria of a rapidly changing medical system structure. Teleradiology can be a crucial component for a clinic to provide an ideal service of expert care at an exceptional value.

Teleradiology: Best Providers

Vesta has been providing expert radiology services for over 15 years. We use state of the art technology to streamline your workflow and provide stat readings whenever required. Whether you operate an urgent care center or a private practice our US Board Certified Radiologists are here to help you literally 24×7, even on weekends and nights.

 

teleradiology services
Teleradiologists review an x-ray

 

Please contact us for a custom proposal and a complimentary overview of our services and technology.

Professional Healthcare Workers: Overcoming Burnout

Healthcare workers on the brink of burnout often feel overwhelmed and out of control. It is difficult for them to describe the exhaustion and fatigue they experience–even at the beginning of a work shift. These feelings intensify as the relentless weeks continue. 

burnout radiologist

A worker’s burnout symptoms can surface in many ways. It can be recognized by a worker’s inability to identify with their job, feelings of inadequacy in their profession, and a weariness that blankets their personal and professional lives. 

Front line health workers have little relief from the expectations of their jobs, and they experience constant requests from people in pain and with desperate needs. Also, staff shortages plague the industry, spreading the work responsibilities to a minimal amount of workers. 

 

Most health care professionals enter the field with a sincere desire to help other people, but the extreme emotional pressure of the profession can drain even the most dedicated individuals.

Every person’s strategy to get through difficult times is as different as the circumstances that perpetuated the feelings of burnout. Taking just a few minutes to evaluate what has worked in the past is helpful in realizing a starting point for an individualized healing plan.

 

As a healthcare team or individual, it is constructive to prepare a list of self-care evaluations and strategies to tailor healing plans. Healthcare workers rarely consider self-care at the top of their list of things to do. 

 

A written checklist reduces the need for a person to think about how to fix yet another problem and provides an avenue to an instant action plan when a healthcare worker’s emotions and nerves are frayed. 

 

Checklist Suggestions

  • Would a walk or run be helpful right now? 
  • Do you need a safe distance between yourself and others?
  • Sit down, close your eyes and breathe in to the count of 4 and breathe out to the count of 4. Continue until you can relax your shoulders.
  • Would exercise before work be helpful? Maybe walking or riding your bike to work might give you emotional preparation time for the shift? 
  • Do you need fun activities like dancing, singing, camping, or anything else that may give you pleasure? Schedule the time to do that right now.
  • Are you eating healthy food?
  • Are you drinking enough fluids to stay hydrated?
  • Are you sleeping well? If not, what will help you sleep 7 to 9 needed hours? 
  • Are you increasing the use of alcohol and other drugs? If so, do you need help?
  • Are you staying in contact with family and friends for added support?
  • Do you need a friend? Remember, you are part of a team–you are not alone. Many others are working alongside you with similar circumstances or feelings.
  • Do you need additional emotional support?
  • Would journaling about your feelings be helpful to you?

burnout healthcare

The purpose of this checklist is to allow ideas to flow and assist a person in defining the individual needs at any given time. This process also allows healthcare workers to remain in control of their decisions for change.

 

Management can be instrumental in providing their Healthcare Workers with the needed support to avoid staff burnout. Management can provide added recognition to staff members for the work they do and structure a work environment that encourages self-care.

Vesta Teleradiology: here for you, even on weekends

Vesta – an tech-driven, patient-centered radiology solutions provider–understands the importance of giving healthcare workers the time they need to recharge and rest. That’s why our radiologists work day, nights, weekends and holidays. Look to Vesta for reliable, outsourced radiology interpretations and customized reports for your patients.

Innovations in Cardiac Imaging

In 1895, Wilhelm Rontgen accidentally discovered X-rays. Since then, imaging technology has drastically advanced in all areas of healthcare, including cardiac imaging.

Medical professionals in the 1960s were using ultrasound imaging, and technicians developed Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and Computed Tomography in the 1970s. With these tools, the advancement of cardiac imaging escalated, creating real-time diagnosis of cardiovascular disease.

Advancing technology allowed cardiac physicians to perform diagnostic cardiac imaging like echocardiography and myocardial perfusion imaging in their medical offices. The trend for in-office imaging moved more to hospital settings because of the reduction of reimbursement rates in 2005 and the rapid technological changes in the industry.

Innovative technology advancement has needed to be a conglomeration of industrial, government, and academic research for cardiac imagery development to advance. Engineers, industry clinicians, and scientists have all participated in any advancements.

Two technology areas in cardiac imaging have had significant development over the past 15 years–nuclear cardiology and echocardiography. 

Nuclear Cardiology

Nuclear Cardiology uses noninvasive techniques to assess and evaluate blood flow and define the internal location of a heart attack. 

Commonly called positron emissions tomography (PET scans) or Computed X-ray tomography (CT scans), physicians can use this technology to discover the extent of heart muscle damage and the heart’s pumping function. 

Nuclear Cardiology has proven to be a superior method for safe and cost-effective diagnosis. Technicians have upgraded cameras, giving physicians higher sensitivity and resolution views than the previous models used.

Echocardiography

Echocardiography uses sound waves to display moving pictures of how heart chambers and valves work. This process can define areas where the heart muscles are not receiving adequate blood flow.

Physicians use echocardiography to locate possible blood clots within the heart and problems with the aorta. Physicians can also detect fluid buildup in the heart’s surrounding sac using echocardiography.

Echocardiography helps detect pediatric heart conditions because of the painless efficiency of the study.

The Future of Cardiac Imagery

Specialists have improved every technological aspect of cardiovascular practice within the past 50 years. Superior refinements in resolutions, measurement processes, and efficiency improve existing processes.

As with most technology-based sciences, the miniaturization of electrocardiography equipment will be the trend. Pocket-sized devices and combining diagnostic modalities through apps and computer applications will keep pace with changing health care practices.

Software development to capture real-time cardiac function and define the health of myocardial tissue is part of the newer developments in the field. Technicians are also refining more affordable methods of Cardiac MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) through research.

A shift in diagnostic technology is advancing in identifying and decreasing cardiovascular risk in patients. Improved imagery will better equip physicians in preventing adverse outcomes. Physicians can more easily define patients’ risk of cardiac issues during exercise and stress-induced blood flow issues.

 

Another benefit to early detection and assessment of the cardiac disease process through imagery will be a better understanding of all the cardiac elements involved, leading to the development of new pharmaceutical drugs to prolong patient lives. 

cardiac imaging tech
New innovations in cardiac imaging

Cardiac Imagery will always be one of the best diagnostic tools available. Physicians and research teams assessing the cost-effectiveness and better patient outcomes will define the best approaches and safety in patient care management.

Outsourced Radiology

Vesta Radiologists are versed a cardiac imaging reading and a variety of other subspecialties. Further, we work nights and weekends so your staff can get the needed rest they require.

Please contact Vesta for outsourced radiology needs at 1-877-55-VESTA

What Cancer Patients Expect From Doctors

Having cancer is terrifying. No matter how brave a person can seem on the outside, inside they are scared. When an oncology patient goes to see their doctor, they are vulnerable and have deep expectations. 

Ultimately, patients expect their doctor(s) to help them. This pertains to emotional support, health and medical concerns, legal rights, and even spiritual needs. Establishing good patient-provider communication is the cornerstone of this important relationship.  

Many patients have taken the popular patient-directed approach to deal with a diagnosis with the patient doing their own research, not all patients view their role in this way though. Some patients are “old school” and expect their doctor to be the informed leader and wisely guide them through their journey, especially older patients. A combination of provider-directed and patient-directed approaches is reasonable. Through this process, a doctor’s ability to assist a patient through the stress and emotions of their diagnosis is critical. Reading verbal and non-verbal cues is one of the most important skills a doctor can offer their patients. Next, a doctor needs to offer what they know their patients need, providing comfort or knowledge or listening or other support. Last, an effective provider helps their patient share power by allowing meaningful involvement in care choices. 

 

patient expectations
A nurse watches over patient

In addition, cancer patients expect their doctors to tell them the truth. Hearing bad news is hard. Telling someone bad news is hard also, but it is a necessary skill that patients need their doctors to be able to perform well. Providers need to be capable within the role of informing their patients of uncomfortable and scary information. An appropriate balance as a compassionate, matter-of-fact communicator is important to affect positive patient outcomes. This includes the swift viewing capability to private electronic medical information, in-person consultation, and sharing information with the family. Keeping in mind that truth without compassion is cruelty, cancer patients want their doctors to allow them free access to the truth about themselves as they are ready to receive it, and that their information record is 100% private and secure. 

Upholding the Patients’ Bill of Rights and HIPAA is another expectation a cancer patient has of their doctor. Although the right to access and affect their medical records and who sees them belongs to the patient, the doctor’s awareness and voice to ensure they remain protected can strengthen trust between the patient and doctor. Privacy and confidentiality are extremely important to many patients. When a doctor upholds a federal law designed for protecting patients at a time life may seem bleak, the horizon can seem a little brighter. 

patient care
Cancer patients expect truth and transparency

Vesta Teleradiology works with doctors, hospitals, and all types of healthcare facilities in order to bring superior radiology support. Our radiologists work nights, weekends, and holidays. Look to Vesta for a radiology company that is focused on helping you provide optimal care to your patients.

Busy Hospital Staffing Challenges and Solutions

Practically every healthcare delivery system has had staffing challenges. The financial impact has seriously stressed resources, staff safety, and the quality of patient care.

Survey data shows a shortage of up to 124,000 physicians by 2033 and the need for an additional 200,000 nurses per year to replace the retiring nursing staff alone. These numbers do not reflect the current increasing operational staffing needs because of the pandemic.

Over the last few years, hospitals and health care workers have been battling the COVID-19 pandemic at great expense. In addition to a staffing system that was already overtaxed, polls found about 3 out of 10 health care workers have considered leaving their profession. The top reason for the workers wanting to change was documented as “emotional health and wellbeing of staff.”

covid staffing issues
COVID has presented many healthcare staffing issues

Patient care suffers when medical workers experience stress and fatigue in the workplace. Overworked workers may experience loss of concentration, irritability, impaired judgment, and slower reaction times.

The hospital’s need to replace and expand physicians and nursing staff comes with a significant financial price. Along with the continual need to interview, train, and bring new teams on board, hospitals have additional expenditures of temporary staff coverage.

New technology has been made available to hospitals to fine-tune the evaluation of staffing needs. The software has been provided to hospital administrations to use artificial intelligence and workflow automation that gives insight into the hospital’s current and future staffing needs. These evaluations permit hospital administrations to be proactive and staff their facilities based on the actual demand.

 

healthcare labor
Healthcare hiring has become more challenging

Once a healthcare facility understands what the staffing needs are, Administrators can approach creative ways of hiring by:

  1.   Using professional publications, professional job boards, and social media links.
  2.   Offering current staff financial incentives to refer friends, family members, and acquaintances.
  3.   Contacting medical schools and training centers.

Creating a desirable facility to work in is the best way to entice new staff members. Creating a work environment that staff is dedicated to being a part of will be a selling point to new staff members and will increase the retention of existing staff.

Solicited information of what health care workers desire in the workplace has been expressed by the following:

  1.   Flexible work schedules that take into consideration the worker’s home life situations (children, aging parents, etc.)
  2.   Competitive compensation that includes first-rate salaries, vacation time, gym memberships, health benefits, child care, and added education benefits
  3.   Maintaining adequate staffing and lower workload ratios
  4.   Inventories of safety supplies, equipment, and vaccinations for disease control and worker’s health
  5.   Routine communication between administration and staff for a clear understanding of what is needed, and a positive environment

Staffing a hospital requires excellent communication to understand “front line” staffing concerns.

With the administrator’s attention to these concerns, a desirable environment for new hires, along with long-term retention of existing staff is achievable.

 

Vesta and Momentum Healthcare Staffing

Aside from Vesta’s teleradiology and telemedicine services, Vesta also offers top-to-bottom healthcare staffing. Our objective is to connect highly qualified clinicians and healthcare facilities with the best opportunities.

Improving Patient Care with Innovative Technology

Tech in Hospitals Today

Physicians in private practice continually seek new ways to improve their patient’s care. Technology has provided an efficient and cost-effective way to maximize the delivery of health care services.

Medical communication between primary care, specialists, laboratory analysts, and hospitals has been improved and expedited through the efficiency of mobile technology and online resources.

Staff can update patient charts throughout an entire system with one update. Physicians can prescribe treatment plans within minutes, whereas before, information would sometimes take days.

The medical profession has mostly eliminated paper charts. Unique office organization methods (and some problematic handwriting) are no longer an issue with medical updating.

Technology has also offered physicians the ability to expand their office business using mobile devices and laptops. Physicians can visit and provide updates to their patients who can remain in the comfort of their homes.

Technology has provided physicians the ability to monitor special needs patients at home or in hospital settings without leaving their offices. This ability reduces the possible transmission of disease and infection from sources outside the patient’s environment.

Evolving Technology

Paper replacement and monitoring are not the only promising technology additions that will benefit physicians’ offices in the future.

Handheld ultrasound imaging has become affordable equipment. Researchers figured out how to put ultrasound technology into a computer chip rather than a $100,000 machine in a hospital. The program simply connects to an iPhone app.

 

Faster, more efficient diagnostic information is available within the confines of a physician’s office now. Programs are available that can scan the 2 million peer-reviewed research papers published every year. Clinical trial results and biomedical information can provide a physician with relationships between drugs, disease, and genes within a few minutes.

Digital capture of radiology imaging allows teleradiology reduced records to be transported almost immediately to any specialist with an internet connection. Time-sensitive treatments for head injuries and strokes can be prescribed, and more lives in rural and remote locations will be saved.

The future holds more integration of telemedicine and decision support systems for physicians. Equipment and smaller devices are more affordable to the physicians as well.

More services such as more complex surgeries may be available to physicians’ offices. With the advancement of telementoring and telerobotic surgeries, physicians may perform surgeries in their offices that would typically be performed in a hospital.

tech in hospitals

Evidence-based information and technologies can improve patient care, save lives, and save money anywhere and everywhere the internet is available–even from the physician’s office.

Vesta’s Tech Solutions

 

Vesta Teleradiology wants to improve both your experience as well as your patients’ experience. That’s why we offer tools and customizable reports that work WITH your current workflow as well as offering teleradiology to supplement your current needs. Efficiency, quick turnaround times and US Board Certified Radiologists are what make Vesta a formidable partner for your healthcare facility.

Patient Comfort During Diagnostic Imaging

The role of the radiologist has changed over recent years. The health care world once thought of these professionals as sitting in a dark room interpreting imaging data and writing reports.

Today, diagnostic imaging is used by physicians more, and the radiologist’s role has become more centrally involved with patient care. There are opportunities to connect to the patients during the diagnostic imaging process that other health care providers don’t have.

Patient comfort during any healthcare procedure provides a series of activities that gain trust and provide emotional security in the process. Diagnosticians’ communication with their patients must convey that the staff is dependable, empathetic, and knowledgeable.

Environment

When patients first arrive for their appointment, they may be apprehensive and anxious about what their diagnostic imaging may reveal about their health and future.

The waiting room is where the patients not only wait for their appointment, but it is a place where they can talk with family members. Giving the seating lots of space allows areas with quiet corners for people to speak and express anxieties they may be experiencing.

A waiting room with plants, windows, and possibly waterfalls and nature scenes provides space for relaxation, gathering thoughts, and exploring possible questions about the procedure.

Physical Comfort

Diagnosticians performing a baseline assessment of the patient’s pain levels before, during, and after any invasive procedure is essential. It is also necessary to educate staff on any pain control protocols.

Patients appreciate simple office organization like short wait times in scheduling to minimize stress. Patients also appreciate comfortable procedure gowns, comfortable room temperatures, and warm blankets, along with sheets and pillows covering the procedure tables.

By reducing the technology sounds like beepers and overhead speakers, patients can have an easier time relaxing.

Communication

Effective communication can begin with the diagnostician partnering with the patient and their families to ensure that needs and preferences are being met. By involving the patient and their family, decision-making becomes more straightforward and more confident.

Patient-centered communication skills encourage the patient to talk about psychosocial issues that may affect their health or procedures. Through this communication process, the diagnostician can respect their patient’s requests and values and address or provide counseling and resources for patient support.

patient doctor communication

The top priority in the patient and health care provider relationship is maintaining an open and honest relationship. Diagnosticians can be sure the patient understands the procedures and the results of the processes by spending time, and using any tools that can assist is most valuable.

Tools like questionnaires, pamphlets, and visual aids can help the health care provider explain the benefits, risks, procedures, and processes or what is happening with the patient’s health.

Paying attention to the patient’s emotional concerns and using their own words when encouraging them to express themselves builds their trust with their health care providers.

Imaging diagnosticians can use the time spent with the patient as teachable moments. For example, during mammography appointments, staff can inform and educate patients about the importance of colon screening and bone density tests.

It is also crucial for health care providers to practice restraint and allow quiet time for their patients. There is sometimes a tremendous amount of information to process, and it takes time for patients to deal with their feelings and formulate essential questions they may have.

enhanced patient experience

 

The importance of diagnostic imaging will continue to expand in the health care field. Advancements in cancer treatments, diagnoses, and disease prevention rely heavily on the professionalism of diagnostic imaging.

These health care professionals can experience positive relationships and trust with their patients by providing needed emotional support and conveying a genuine sense of caring.

Vesta Teleradiology wants to help you make your patients’ experience as streamlined as possible. That’s why we offer tools and customizable reports that work WITH your current workflow. We also offer 24x7x365 radiology reading services so your radiologists can have a better work life balance.