Science & Education
Now you are the chief of the radiology practice. The aforementioned behavior has just been brought to your attention as the radiologist in charge. You speak with this partner, who justifies his/her behavior by again complaining about the office staff of the referring physician. He/she reminds you that it takes much more time to make an addendum than to interpret the study with the comparison images the first time. This is a problem for all of the radiologists in the group, since the productivity of each radiologist is being measured on a work RVU (relative value unit) basis, with no additional RVUs garnered for evaluating a comparison exam. In addition, the staff of this office has a habit of not sending the comparison study to the radiology practice until the last minute and then wants an immediate comparison because the patient is present in the office. Question 2: Which of the following managerial options is the best choice?
Tell the partner that this behavior will not be tolerated, and if it happens again, the partner will be placed on probation.
Tell the partner that you understand the difficulty, and ask the partner to be more understanding of the office staff in the future, as they are a good referral source.
Ask the partner to work out a solution directly with the office staff of the referring physician so it doesn’t happen again and so that the partner gets some management experience.
Instruct this partner not to read any more imaging exams referred from this office.
Call this referring physician’s office yourself to develop a routine of having the comparison exam sent to the radiology practice prior to interpretation of the imaging exam, and work with the partner to modify his/her behavior.
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