Introduction Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is a way of medically imaging the body with the use of a magnetic field and radiofrequency waves. (1) As image quality of MRI continues to improve, more MRI exams are being ordered. Increasing MRI exams leads to increased wait times. Due to current wait lists, the health status of patients may decrease, influencing the type of treatment the patient will require once removed from the wait list. (7) The advances in technology have increased in the past decade, with MRI procedures are vastly growing to provide superior diagnostic quality compared to other modalities. New technologies are also allowing for faster scan times and further increased image quality. (9) Wait Times: What and Why …show more content…
(6) Although wait times for MRI have decreased across Canada, from 2012 to 2013, by an average of 8.4 weeks to 8.3 weeks, BC patients are waiting the longest, at 16 weeks, for an MRI scan compared to the rest of Canada. (6) Physicians believe Canadian patients are waiting 3 weeks longer to receive treatment following a specialist appointment than what is considered clinically acceptable. (6) Delays could also be due to further investigation or treatments that may be required prior to a specialist referral or specific health care services. (7) Wait times can be increased due to patient needs outside of the health care system. Only 11.1% of patients on the overall health care waiting lists are due to patient requests for delay of postponing of treatment. (6) How to Decrease MRI Wait Times Wait times can be decreased for MRI by increasing the provincial funding for health care systems by the government of Canada. (7) With an increase of funding, more scanners could be purchased, more technologists could be hired to run the scanners, and hospital booking systems may become more efficient. (4, 7) MRI scanners could also be operated for extended hours, allowing the number of scans each day to increase. (4) Wait times could also be decreased by developing a standardized approach for prioritizing exams and patient acuities, determining the urgency level of each patient. (6,4) Current efforts that have been made to decrease the wait times by
One reason some offices run continuously late is the doctor trys to see to many patients on a given day.Moreso, when this happens the payient dosen’t get the attention thay require from the physician.Running patient through
However, in this situation, there is also a complicating requirement for quick response under highly variable conditions. This means that we want the MRI machine to have some
There are many factors to why appointments are delayed or re-scheduled that are beyond the structuring of time, however, there are some ideas that can help ease the annoyance of having to wait. The best thing to address is making sure the patient feels comfortable. Keep people abreast of the wait time and what’s going on. People understand things happen. However, they don’t want to feel forgotten. Some doctor’s offices have grasped the ideas of distraction, provide TV with news and valuable information, brochures and literature read, even hiring nurses or
It is not a good to keep your patients waiting to see you. That wait time should not be more than ten minutes but more than likely, it should not be more than seven minutes. The reason for the shorter wait time is that when your patients come to see you is, because do not feel well, and the longer they wait the more uncomfortable they feel. When they are uncomfortable and annoyed because they were kept waiting they take it out on the staff and even the physician. Everyone realizes that Doctors get patients that come and they are sicker than they thought, so when this happens someone should come
Rodak, S. (2012) How Cleveland Clinic Reduced Cancer Patients' Wait Times by More Than 80%. Becker's Hospital Review. 26 Sept 2012. Retrieved from: http://www.beckershospitalreview.com/capacity-management/how-cleveland-clinic-reduced-cancer-patients-wait-times-by-more-than-80.html
To properly reduce these wait times in Canada and to bring it up to par with the international average, Canada will need to start changing things province by province. This will ensure all citizens, especially our older adults, are receiving the best possible care. Some changes could be financial incentives, policies, increase available resources, and implement new technologies to increase patient flow (CIHI, 2012).
Wait times before surgical procedures improved 2.4 points (ie, a score based on percentage) from 85.7 to 88.1. Communication of information regarding delays that did occur improved 2.3 points from 85.9 to 88.2. Patient perception of how well staff members worked together improved 1.4 points from 95.8 to 97.2 with statistically significant gains at a .05 confidence level. The overall facility rating improved 1.2 points from 93.2 to 94.4, and ambulatory
I found it quite interesting that you mentioned Dr. Changs idea to help patients be treated more efficiently and effectively. Individual waiting in the waiting room is definitely an issue, and will continue to be a problem
Rosen says that in his field of pediatric rheumatology the ratio of patients to doctors is one of the aspects that contribute to long wait times. “In my field, pediatric rheumatology, there are little more than 300 doctors in the field in North America. Wait times for appointments can run up to four months” (Rosen, 2015). However, he and his fellow physicians, knowing that there is always room for improvement went on a mission to decrease patient wait time from one month to 72 hours. Using resources, techniques, and the unified goal of putting patient access as a top priority, Dr. Rosen and his team were able to set up a four year plan. In this plan, patients were being seen on first-come-first-served
Several existing problems precipitated the creation of the triage system implemented by Kathryn Angell in an effort to deliver improved medical care. The main problem was a lack of coordination in service delivery. This lack of coordination caused excessive wait times on the order of anywhere from 23 to 40 minutes to see a nurse, 40 to 50 minutes to see a doctor, and as long as 55 minutes to get a prescription filled. The practice of all nurses being involved initially in seeing all patients caused duplication of efforts, including repeating questions and examinations, and resulted in procedural bottlenecks. Additionally, there were inconsistent levels of service and extreme variation in treatment because of the different experience
Since the introduction of the magnetic resonance imaging unit, diagnostic medicine has flourished. The ability to see different pathologies in a detailed soft tissue image has helped guide doctors in providing patients with better treatment and therefore a better prognosis. In many cases, magnetic resonance imaging is the golden standard in diagnostic studies. This is especially true when studying blood vessels. The majority of doctors turn to a magnetic resonance angiography(MRA) method called bright blood imaging when they are concerned with any blood flowing vessels. A few main areas of concern include vessels in the brain, neck, thoracic, abdominal aorta, renals, and vessels in the legs called a “run off”. When doctors order an MRA using bright blood imaging they want to rule out serious pathologies such as aneurysms, aorta dissection, or stenosis. Bright blood imaging uses a strong magnetic field and specific pulse sequences. Below we will discuss three different techniques and their own unique advantages and disadvantages.
Q1: Discuss the major reasons for long wait times in emergency rooms, hospitals, and walk-in clinics? [300- 400 words].
These new forms of magnetic resonance imaging machines have made scans more comfortable as well as more achievable in some cases which the patient cannot lay in a traditional MRI machine. Open magnetic resonance scanners use a low field magnet so they do not create a very high quality image which can make their scans hard to diagnose (Shalen, 2002). Although these machines don’t create as high quality of images as traditional tunnel MRI machines, it may be the only machine tolerable for some patients as stated by Shalen (2012). Recently a MRI machine which combines the comfort of an open MRI with the accuracy and diagnostic quality of a traditional machine; this was achieved with a short bore MRI machine (Shalen, 2002). Shalen (2002) discusses how these short bore magnetic resonance scanners tend to be less more comfortable for patients in pain and more tolerable for patients who suffer from claustrophobia due to their shorter bore size and the less time needed for each exam due to the high field magnets.
On the contrary, the people of the United States do not come across the problem of long waiting lists. The average American cancer patient waits no more than ten days for radiation therapy while Canadians typically wait four times that long.5 An MRI scan in the United States can be had after an average wait of four days and in Canada one hundred and fifty.6 Health care promptness keeps declining in Canada, not only because of government cuts, but also because many health care professionals move south, where they can work in the most technologically advanced hospitals on the planet making higher wages.
Upon arrival a patient should have been made aware about a delay therefore he/she would not get inpatient. The appointment itself should not be rushed. A health proffessional should have explained everything in a clear and precise manner giving patient the opportunity to voice any concern or ask any additional questions. In regards to the appointment itself, the