The Operational and Financial Value of an Interventional Radiology Clinic at a Large, Academic, Tertiary Public Hospital System

Joseph L. Mcdevitt, Rehan S. Quadri, Patrick D. Sutphin, Mark Reddick

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Purpose ?To evaluate the operational and financial impact of an interventional radiology (IR) clinic at a tertiary county hospital system. Methods ?The IR clinic, which opened in January 2017, evaluates outpatient referrals and completes preprocedure workups, nonimage-guided procedures, and postprocedure follow-up visits. Procedural volumes, locations, start times, and end times were analyzed from September 2015 to June 2018, with comparison of pre- A nd postclinic values by t-tests. Results ?Relative to the preclinic period, the number of IR cases completed each quarter has increased by an average of 12% (pre: 953 63, post: 1063 34, p = 0.01). Procedures that saw the largest quarterly growth included port placements (44% increase; pre: 82 8, post: 118 17, p = 0.002), inferior vena cava (IVC) filter placements (24% increase; pre: 33 12, post: 41 8, p = 0.20), IVC filter removals (72% increase; pre: 18 7, post: 31 8, p = 0.02), and treatments of lower extremity venous disease (100% increase; pre: 7 2, post: 14 6, p = 0.04). Completion of 119 cases/quarter in clinic (removal of tunneled catheters and infusion ports), as well as a reduction of emergent nephrostomy exchanges, reduced quarterly facility charges for these procedures by $350,000. Since the opening of the IR clinic, the first outpatient case started 36 minutes earlier (p < 0.001) and the last case finished 19 minutes earlier (p = 0.004). Conclusion ?Opening an IR clinic resulted in a significant increase in case volume while reducing avoidable costs and improving efficiency of the angiography suite.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article numberJCIR2000060
Pages (from-to)16-21
Number of pages6
JournalJournal of Clinical Interventional Radiology ISVIR
Volume5
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Apr 1 2021

Keywords

  • clinic-based model
  • interventional radiology
  • public hospital systems
  • quality improvement

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Radiology Nuclear Medicine and imaging

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'The Operational and Financial Value of an Interventional Radiology Clinic at a Large, Academic, Tertiary Public Hospital System'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this