“Our challenge was not simple. The Nuclear Medicine department was operating at a loss and benchmark data indicated that there were opportunities for improved efficiencies; in addition, our clinicians where apprehensive about the review. As a result, we needed to understand our operations better and prioritize the changes, which needed to be made.”

“TNC responded to our needs and identified the requisite Nuclear Medicine expertise to address our needs. The outcome was fantastic. They showed great insight, were respectful in their approach and identified how we could streamline operations and suggested strategies as to how we could engage the clinicians to achieve their buy in. Recommendations are now in place and QHC anticipates benefiting from the review for years to come.”

Mike Prociw, Quinte Health Care

Nuclear Medicine Service, Quinte Health Care

An operational review of the Nuclear Medicine Service at Quinte Health Care (QHC) was performed by TNC in February and March, 2009. The requested operational review was to be a re-evaluation of service delivery with the intent to improve quality and efficiency. TNC used a multi-disciplinary team approach, including clinical, technical and administrative membership. This review provided findings and recommendations to assess: the appropriateness of current practices; if costs for the Nuclear Medicine service are in line or can be reduced to improve the hospital’s overall financial efficiency; and, an assessment of the scope of service offering in order to keep pace with shifts in QHC demand, regional programs, and changes in technology in the mid and long term. The TNC team included the Lead Consultant, DI physician advisor and as needed TNC support personnel.

TNC methodology included:

  • A high level review of existing data
  • Interviews with internal and external stakeholders of Quinte Health Care’s Nuclear Medicine Service
  • The analysis of collected data, observations and stakeholder input, including, current state analysis, benchmarking data, and quality and quantity of current operations
  • An environmental scan of QHC Nuclear Medicine was performed and a comparative model was developed
  • The review resulted in the development of recommendations for changes that were deemed appropriate to improve the quality of service and/or reduction in costs in order to assist the hospital’s overall goal of a balanced departmental operational budget
  • Development of an operational report that synthesized results and recommendations
  • Presentation of the operational report to Quinte Health Care administration and Nuclear Medicine management group

TNC’s review resulted in findings in eight areas:

  • Clerical support processes
  • NM Tech procedure performance processes
  • NM Management process
  • NM Physician professional practice
  • NM department relations with Quinte Hospital administration
  • Revenue & Recoveries reporting
  • Workload capture and reporting
  • Radio-pharmacy purchasing
  • Overall data integrity of Information System procedure dictionaries
  • Workload capture and reporting

TNC made recommendations in the following areas to address the findings above:

  • Improve communications with and within the NM department
  • Form informatics team to address data integrity and improve quality of data reporting to Finance and Information Systems
  • Investigate potential under-utilization of specific procedures
  • Staff training and continuing medical education

Results to date have been a rebuild of the Community Wide Scheduler and Central Booking Process; the audit and review of the NM procedure dictionaries; re-evaluation of the supply of radiopharmaceuticals and establishment of improved communications pathways.