The Emergency Radiology Dashboard: Facilitating Workflow With Realtime Data

Area of Science:

• Radiology
• Healthcare Operations
• Medical Imaging Informatics

Background:

• Emergency radiology imaging volumes fluctuate due to various predictable and unpredictable factors.
• These fluctuations can result in inefficient radiologist staffing, workflow disruptions, and compromised trainee education.
• Optimizing emergency department workflow is crucial for timely patient care.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and implement a real-time, 2-tiered dashboard for managing emergency radiology operations.
• To assess the impact of this dashboard on workflow efficiency, radiologist staffing, and trainee education.
• To provide a scalable solution for real-time operational monitoring in emergency radiology.

Main Methods:

• Collaboration between radiology and IT departments to create a custom dashboard.
• Implementation of a 2-tiered system to track patient census, ordered studies, and unread studies.
• Development of interactive features for accessing specific study details.

Main Results:

• The dashboard provided real-time visibility into key operational metrics.
• Improvements were observed in workflow management and radiologist staffing allocation.
• Enhanced data accessibility facilitated better trainee education and operational oversight.

Conclusions:

• Real-time dashboards are effective tools for optimizing emergency radiology workflow.
• Implementation led to improved operational efficiency, staffing, and educational experiences.
• This approach offers a valuable model for other radiology departments facing similar challenges.