Turning Radiology Leakage Into Growth: How One Academic Medical Center Optimized Access With Data
Healthcare organizations face constant pressure to improve access, reduce leakage, and grow service lines, all while overcoming complex operational requirements. The radiology sector is experiencing increasing demand for imaging, and a shortage of workers exacerbates these challenges.
For one large academic medical center, radiology had quietly become a major source of lost revenue and patient outmigration. Doctivity Health’s data analytics enabled the organization to identify the root cause of the problem. It implemented a pilot program that transformed a longstanding bottleneck into a scalable growth opportunity.
The Challenge: Radiology as a Barrier to Speciality Access
Radiology had become the medical center’s number one source of service leakage. The issue stemmed from a scheduling requirement within the orthopaedic and neurosurgery departments. Patients were required to have a current MRI within the last six months before their specialty appointment could be scheduled.
While having a recent MRI was clinically appropriate, the requirement also created unintended consequences. Primary care physicians were eager to help patients be seen as quickly as possible. To achieve this goal, providers would frequently refer patients to competing health systems that did not impose the same MRI prerequisite.
This move pushed patients out of the health system before they ever entered the orthopaedic or neurosurgery care pathway. It resulted in a loss of downstream revenue and had long-term consequences for the organization’s bottom line.
While the organization knew the scope of the problem, it lacked visibility into how radiology constraints were driving the leakage. It needed access to powerful data analytics tools to shed light on the issue. That’s where Doctivity Health became an invaluable ally.
The Insight: Using Analytics to Reveal Hidden Roadblocks
Doctivity Health partnered with the academic medical center to analyze referral patterns, appointment requirements, and service line performance. The data made the issue unmistakably clear. Radiology access was both a diagnostic service problem and a barrier to specialty care growth.
The organization worked with Doctivity to build a targeted pilot program. The goal was to simplify requirements through operational changes, such as bundled scheduling, which ultimately kept patients in-house.
The Solution: A Data-Driven Pilot Program
The pilot focused on simplifying and streamlining the scheduling process for patients requiring MRIs before orthopaedic or neurosurgery visits. Key operational changes were implemented, including the following:
Bundled Scheduling: Radiology appointments were coordinated alongside orthopaedic or neurosurgery appointments
Centralized Access: Scheduling responsibilities were migrated to a centralized call center to improve consistency and reduce handoffs
Primary Care Alignment: Employed primary care providers partnered more closely with specialty and radiology teams
Doctivity tracked performance metrics throughout the pilot to ensure changes delivered measurable results. The healthcare organization removed guesswork from the equation.
The Results: From Leakage to Measurable Growth
Doctivity tracked the client’s results for two months after the pilot program was up and running. The results were as follows:
39 new patients were acquired
Gross revenue from MRIs and initial appointments exceeded $300,000
The organization expanded the pilot to other service areas
By turning bundled scheduling into “business as usual,” the client organization expanded its revenue capture capabilities and set the stage for long-term specialty growth.
Why This Matters for Health Systems
Operational requirements, especially those around diagnostic processes, can unintentionally drive patients elsewhere. Without robust analytics, these issues may remain hidden and quietly erode service line performance.
Doctivity enabled the medical center to implement a solution that improved the patient experience and aligned physicians across different specialties. These moves fit in with the organization’s financial goals as well.
Moving From Pilot to Strategy
The targeted pilot became a new operational process that the client could implement at scale. Radiology no longer acted as a gatekeeper that pushed patients away. Instead, the organization used it as a tool to simplify the delivery of service while keeping patients in the specialty care funnel.
With the right approach, healthcare systems can turn operational roadblocks into growth opportunities.
Are you ready to take a deep dive into your organization’s patient data? Schedule a demo with Doctivity Health today and explore our analytics technologies.
