22 Oct Study: Many practices offer outside reading services

AuntMinnie.com | October 22 – Offering outside image reading service is a common activity among radiology practices, and as teleradiology capability continues to grow, this service is being provided more and more via the Internet, according to a new study in the November issue of the American Journal of Roentgenology (AJR).

Researchers at Yale University in New Haven, CT, and at the American College of Radiology (ACR) of Reston, VA, examined how many radiology practices perform outside readings, what might influence the frequency and volume of this service, and how practices were paid for outside readings, using data from an ACR 2007 survey to serve as a baseline measure (AJR, November 2010, Vol. 195:5, pp. 1159-1163).

The study found that overall, 40% of U.S. radiology practices performed outside readings in 2007. Of this, the mean fraction of a practice’s workload represented by outside readings was 11%.

Huffman’s team found variations in the percentage of practices that performed outside readings by type: 22% of academic practices performed the service, 2% of government practices, and 25% of private nonacademic multispecialty radiology practices.

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