Quality Assurance
RAF is proud to offer the highest quality radiology services to assist clinicians in diagnosis and management of their patients.
Achieving such high standards requires an investment in state-of-the-art technology and experienced staff operating in ACR-accredited facilities. Maintaining these standards requires an ongoing commitment to Quality Assurance (QA). That means constantly comparing ourselves to national and internal benchmarks. It means ensuring that our imaging equipment and imaging procedures are on par with ACR guidelines. It also means that our radiologists stay up-to-date through mandatory maintenance of certification and continue to improve through real-time monitoring and feedback.
In regards to monitoring physician radiologist performance, we regularly evaluate our physicians to assure reporting guidelines and recommendations follow current standard of care. Furthermore, we survey our referring physicians to determine how satisfied they are with current services and to learn how we can continuously improve. Diagnostic imaging is critical to accurate patient diagnosis and management. Therefore, RAF monitors image quality and radiologists’ performance on a daily basis.
RADPEER is a web-based system developed by the ACR to assist radiologists with quality assessment and improvement via peer review of routine images. RAF voluntarily participates in RADPEER as part of its quality assurance program at both its outpatient and inpatient sites.
Daily Peer Review
Up to 1.5% of our cases are randomly selected on a daily basis for anonymous secondary review by other radiologists. Each image is scored on a scale of 1 through 3, with 1 representing concurrent interpretation and 2 and 3 representing discrepant imaging findings. The information is logged into the RADPEER system and reports are generated to assess patterns and identify problems in a timely manner. Metrics are submitted quarterly to our Quality Assurance committee.
RAF’s concordance rates are well above the national average. When discrepancies occur, appropriate action is taken based on the recommendation of the QA committee. Significant discrepancies are, of course, discussed with the radiologist involved and the patient’s referring physician. But in the ongoing pursuit of excellence, even minor discrepancies are often used as teaching tools at our internal meetings. RAF performs randomized peer reviews over 60,000 exams annually. Overall, RAF consistently demonstrates favorable peer review results across all four categories. RAF noted more concordances in Category 1 (99.27%) in comparison to the National Average (97.99%). Fewer discrepancies were exhibited in Category 2 and 3 compared to the National Average.
