Practice Quality Improvement The Role of Subspecialty Societies

Why should subspecialty societies be involved in PQI?

• Their members: - know the important questions - know the science and technology - know the relevant metrics • May provide national benchmarking data

Projects Developed by Subspecialty Societies

• Assist members with lifelong professional development • Relevant to that subspecialty area • Reasonable to accomplish

Subspecialty Society PQI

• May be difficult for small societies to develop complete PQI programs • Limited resources: - money - people - technical expertise and hardware limitations

Subspecialty Society PQI

• Develop complete ABR-approved PQI projects • Work with larger general radiology organizations • Work with other subspecialty societies

SPR + ASNR Pediatric Neuroradiology PQI project ASNR + SBI Ø

Subspecialty Society PQI

• Important roles: - provide expertise to larger radiology organizations (ACR, ARRS, RSNA) - develop tools for larger societies or individuals to use in their PQI projects - help to develop relevant databases for that subspecialty benchmarking

Radiologists are resistant to change

• Skeptical about new mandates such as MOC • Most don’t understand MOC, especially PQI • Don’t see the need • PQI seems threatening – fear of consequences and discovery • People respond better when they get information from their most closely aligned organization

SBI

• Mammography already heavily regulated • MQSA mandates medical audit

SBI

• ACR BI-RADS has information for more complete audit • NMDB could become a PQI benchmarking tool ACR product developed with SBI members

SBI

• SBI managed by ACR and has long history of close alignment and collaboration • SBI has limited resources for major projects

Examples of Relatively Easy PQI Projects for SBI participation

Accuracy of Interpretation

• National program, such as ACR RadPeer • Double reading - intradepartmental - external review • Comparison of interpretations with pathology results

Practice Guidelines and Standards

• 2 Required • One must be Communication, (reporting of urgent results) • One component of another guideline related to your practice area

Referring Physician Surveys

• Particularly relevant to breast imaging • Reflect quality of practice • ABR template survey • Institutional survey IU School of Medicine Physician Peer-Review Survey Radiologist: Valerie Jackson, MD Please rank the radiologist’s performance in each area: 1 = poor, 5 = Excellent Accessibility 1 2 3 4 5 Accuracy of reports 1 2 3 4 5 Professionalism 1 2 3 4 5 Timeliness of reports 1 2 3 4 5 Quality of consultation 1 2 3 4 5 Interaction with patients 1 2 3 4 5