It’s a late on Friday afternoon and the patient presents with apparent pneumonia. The physician orders a chest x-ray to confirm the diagnosis. The radiologist reviews the images and confirms the pneumonia diagnosis. The radiologist faxes the findings to the primary care physician’s office. However, the Primary Care office has closed for the weekend without the physician reading the report. The patient condition deteriorates throughout the weekend and by Sunday afternoon the patient goes to the emergency room and is admitted to the hospital and the prognosis is unclear.
The x-ray and the radiologist’s report did not add any value to the patient’s condition or possibility avoiding the patient from an inpatient stay. To prevent such outcomes and improve patient care in the future the Radiology Group, a private medical group with more than 50 radiologists, developed a 24/7 Results Communication Center where radiologist reading the report would of instructed the Communication Center to call the primary care physician directly to relay the findings. Then the family physician could have called in a prescription for the patient and possibility avoided the patient from having to be admitted to the hospital.
2. In this scenario, discuss the patient experience and satisfaction level of the patient.