Devising a uniform plan to begin returning practice imaging volumes back to pre-COVID levels is essential, experts say. But sharing such a strategy nationally may be difficult, given the array of differing variables from one market to the next.
At Stanford University’s School of Medicine in California, imaging volumes have dropped roughly 46% over baseline. Looking for a bounce back, department of radiology leaders have hypothesized six possible factors that will influence their recovery, sharing their predictions Monday in JACR.
“Given the substantial differences in severity and timing of the disease in different geographic regions, estimating resumption of radiology volumes will be one of the next major challenges for radiology practices,” wrote Nikhil Madhuripan, MD, chief fellow of body imaging, and colleagues at Stanford.
“We encourage radiology practice leaders to use these and other relevant variables to plan for the coming weeks and to work collaboratively with local health system and governmental leaders to help ensure that needed patient care is restored as quickly as the environment will safely permit,” the team added later.
Here's a quick look at their predictions:
- Your service area’s level of disease severity, including possible new waves of infection.
- Local government’s decision to lift social-distancing restrictions.
- Patient’s level of anxiety tied to leaving their homes to enter imaging centers.
- Your institution’s ability to manage—and capacity to tackle—pent-up demand for care.
- The economic downturn’s effect on insurance coverage and customers’ ability to pay for imaging.
- Each practice’s patient mix, including proportion requiring elective imaging versus emergency, inpatient or outpatient services.
“By focusing on key variables specific to local regions and institutions that will likely impact imaging volumes, radiology practices can better prepare to provide safe and effective care in subsequent phases of the pandemic,” Madhuripan and co-authors concluded. “We emphasize that reduction in imaging volumes represents delayed medical care. When considered for all regions across the country, the impact on the lives of patients and families is likely to be substantial, adding to already heavy impacts from the virus and from economic losses and even greater for regions most heavily impacted by the disease.”
You can read the full pre-proof analysis from Stanford for free in the Journal of the American College of Radiology here.
Marty Stempniak has covered healthcare since 2012, with his byline appearing in the American Hospital Association's member magazine, Modern Healthcare and McKnight's. Prior to that, he wrote about village government and local business for his hometown newspaper in Oak Park, Illinois. He won a Peter Lisagor and Gold EXCEL awards in 2017 for his coverage of the opioid epidemic.