The nuclear medicine therapy care coordination service: a model for radiologist-driven patient-centered care

A patient journey audit tool (PJAT) to assess quality indicators in a nuclear medicine service

PURPOSE

To develop a nuclear medicine specific patient journey audit tool (PJAT) to survey and audit patient journeys in a nuclear medicine department such as staff interaction with patients, equipment, quality of imaging and laboratory procedures, patient protection, infection control and radiation safety, with a view to optimising patient care and providing a high-quality nuclear medicine service.

METHODS

The PJAT was developed specifically for use in nuclear medicine practices. Thirty-two questions were formulated in the PJAT to test the department's compliance to the Australian National Safety and Quality Health Service Standards, namely clinical governance, partnering with consumers, preventing and controlling health care infection, medication safety, comprehensive care, communicating for safety, blood management and recognising and responding to acute deterioration. The PJAT was also designed to test our department's adherence to diagnostic reference levels (DRL). A total of 60 patient journey audits were completed for patients presenting for nuclear medicine, positron emission tomography and bone mineral density procedures during a consecutive 4-week period to audit the range of procedures performed. A further 120 audits were captured for common procedures in nuclear medicine and positron emission tomography during the same period. Thus, a total of 180 audits were completed. A subset of 12 patients who presented for blood labelling procedures were audited to solely assess the blood management standard.

RESULTS

The audits demonstrated over 85% compliance for the Australian national health standards. One hundred percent compliance was noted for critical aspects such as correct patient identification for the correct procedure prior to radiopharmaceutical administration, adherence to prescribed dose limits and distribution of the report within 24 h of completion of the imaging procedure.

CONCLUSION

This PJAT can be applied in nuclear medicine departments to enhance quality programmes and patient care. Austin Health has collaborated with the IAEA to formulate the IAEA PJAT, which is now available globally for nuclear medicine departments to survey patient journeys.

Root Cause Analysis of Na131I Contamination

Establishing a cause-and-effect relationship for an adverse event is one of the key steps in preventing them and involves multiple people, resources, and steps, thus requiring a root cause analysis. Here, we describe a root cause analysis performed in the nuclear medicine department for an event involving Na¹³¹I contamination. Oral administration of Na¹³¹I in a capsule minimizes the risk of contamination and spills. However, the patient must be able to swallow a capsule. Na¹³¹I in capsule form is currently in widespread use for treatment of hyperthyroidism and thyroid cancer. Na¹³¹I in liquid form is rarely available immediately on demand and must be ordered at least 24-48 h in advance of the planned administration. The events leading to the incident, immediate remedial steps taken, and subsequent root cause analysis are described. The corrective actions taken after the root cause analysis, as well as the subsequent effectiveness of these actions, are mentioned. There may be one or multiple causes for an adverse event. It is important to identify the root cause. Corrective actions derived from the root cause can help prevent similar adverse events in the future. Therapeutic procedures in nuclear medicine involve unsealed radioactive sources, further adding a separate layer of immediate steps and reporting to the root cause analysis itself.

Current Clinical Practice Patterns of Self-Identified Nuclear Medicine Specialists

OBJECTIVE

The objective of our study was to study patterns of services rendered by U.S. physicians who self-identify as nuclear medicine (NM) specialists.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Recent Medicare physician claims and demographic files were obtained and linked. NM specialists were defined as physicians self-identifying NM as their primary specialty on claims or as any of their specialties during enrollment. Using other self-identified specialties, we classified physicians as nuclear radiologists, nuclear cardiologists, exclusively NM physicians, or Others. Our primary outcome measure was the percentage of NM effort (in work relative value units [WRVUs]) per physician per specialty group. Secondary outcome measures included physician sociodemographic parameters and most common uniquely rendered services.

RESULTS

Nationally, 1583 physicians self-identified as NM specialists during the calendar years 2012 through 2015. The distribution of WRVUs attributed to NM varied widely by specialty group; most nuclear radiologists and nuclear cardiologists devoted 10% or less of their effort to NM services whereas most NM physicians devoted 90% or more of their effort to NM services. NM specialists were most commonly nuclear radiologists (52.2%) and men (80.3%) and practiced in urban (98.4%) and nonacademic settings (62.9%). NM physicians interpreted more general NM studies, nuclear radiologists interpreted more cross-sectional imaging studies, and nuclear cardiologists interpreted mostly nuclear cardiology studies, with a majority of their overall work attributed to clinical evaluation and management (E/M). E/M services accounted for less than 2% of WRVUs for both nuclear radiologists and NM physicians.

CONCLUSION

The work patterns of U.S. NM specialists is highly variable. Most NM physicians practice 90% or more NM, whereas most nuclear radiologists and nuclear cardiologists practice 10% or less NM. Commonly performed services vary considerably by specialty group.

Teaching Principles of Patient-Centered Care During Radiology Residency

RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES

Patient-centered healthcare delivery has become increasingly established as a cornerstone of quality medical care, but teaching these principles in a radiology residency setting is often difficult and ineffective in a traditional lecture format. We developed a novel educational session in which actual patient letters about a healthcare provider are used to facilitate a case-based discussion of key principles of patient-centered care.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

A novel patient letter-facilitated, case-based session was conducted at two different university-based teaching institutions. Prior to the educational session, patient letters introducing the principles of patient-centered care were distributed to residents for review. During the session, radiology-specific cases were discussed in the context of the principles introduced by the letters. A post-session survey was administered to evaluate the efficacy and usefulness of the session.

RESULTS

Forty-six of the 61 session attendees (75%) completed the post session survey. Most respondents (93%) preferred this case-based, interactive session to a typical didactic session. A majority of the residents indicated that both the patient letters (64%) and radiology specific cases (73%) helped them think differently about how they interact with patients. They indicated that the session enhanced their understanding of professionalism (3.7 out of 5.0 [95% CI 3.4-4.0]) and increased their motivation to become more patient-centered (3.0 out of 4.0 [95% CI 2.8-3.3]).

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings suggest that patient letter-facilitated, case-based sessions may influence resident attitudes regarding the principles of patient-centered care and may help to increase resident motivation to become more patient-centered in their own practice.