19 Oct Sunshine Radiology Implements Teleradiology Solution

ImagingBiz.com | October 11 – Sunshine Radiology was facing a quandary familiar to many radiology groups. The busy 25-radiologist practice (based in Sebring, Florida) wanted to expand its hospital business, but knew that it needed to lower its costs in order to do so. “We needed to keep our radiologists as efficient as possible, and there wasn’t always enough volume to support having a radiologist on-site at each hospital,” Shawn Zimmerman says.

Zimmerman is an IT specialist for Sunshine Radiology and CEO of allRadiology Solutions LLC of Winter Haven, Florida, which provides IT support for Sunshine Radiology. He explains, “With Medicare reimbursement being lowered, there’s a lot more pressure to keep costs low. We’re trying to use technology to create the efficiencies we need to lower our costs and pass those on to our hospitals.”

Sunshine Radiology currently reads for five Florida hospitals, and is in the process of bringing on an additional three hospital clients. The practice plans to accommodate the new volume using a distributed-reading solution that will enable its radiologists to read off-site for all of its hospital customers. “We can make better use of our radiologists this way,” Zimmerman notes. “Instead of paying five radiologists’ salaries to cover, for instance, the 11 pm–7 am timeframe, we can take one salary and split it.”

The linchpin of Sunshine Radiology’s new approach is the Synapse teleradiology solution from FUJIFILM Medical Systems USA Inc., Stamford, Connecticut. allRadiology Solutions went live with the turnkey Synapse solution for its five hospital clients on March 1.

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