The cost of medical care has skyrocketed in this country. Government-supported insurance programs have done nothing but exacerbate this issue while providing fewer services to patients. In an effort to control the cost of care, many private doctors and even some hospitals have begun to utilize teleradiology services.
Radiology is an entry many people see on their hospital bills, but not everyone understands exactly what it means. It is an imaging technique that takes pictures of parts of the body for the purpose of proper treatment or diagnosis. MRIs, CAT scans, and x-rays are all examples of radiology.
Most private medical practices have to send their physical images to a local service in order to have them evaluated properly. For this reason, it is not uncommon for patients to be transported to area hospitals for treatment of broken bones, or evaluation of a patient complaining of chest pain. Local urgent centers often have patients transported via ambulance or Life-Flight, at great cost to the patient.
Few private medical practices are big enough, or wealthy enough to keep a radiologist on site 24-7. In fact, many hospitals have trouble affording to have radiologists on staff since the cost can exceed $1,000.00 per day. By sending the images to an offsite service, via online technology, a professional radiologist can evaluate the images and send a report within hours of the images being taken, allowing for ORIF surgery to be performed right away.
Ultrasound radiologists are frequently in a world all their own, and most OB/GYN practices can only support one of them. However, there are many things which can go wrong during a pregnancy, and sometimes images on an ultrasound are not exactly what they appear because a fetus is an actively moving target for them to measure and evaluate. By utilizing an off-site but Online service, more than one expert can see and evaluate the images in real time.
This ability to receive an instant second opinion is good for more than just pregnant patients. Emergency Room radiologists must use their own discretion when evaluating images of internal injuries or multiple fractures, and they are the ones who give the go-ahead for expensive and risky surgical procedures. Not only can an off-site service grant them a second set of eyes on the images, but if there is no radiologists available at the time, it shortens the time it takes for image evaluation to occur.
Having such specialists available in an online capacity not only lowers costs, but it allows smaller medical offices to offer more extensive testing at their facility. This means fewer ambulance trips from hospital to hospital. It can also mean that the radiologists work from home in an on-call capacity, which gives them more freedom to spend time with family and friends rather than working odd shifts at medical facilities.
These services are charging hospitals by the image rather than by the day, and the savings is measured in the thousands of dollars. It is typical for an image evaluation to be charged at less than $100.00 per image. Patients should know whether or not their hospital is being charged per-image or by the day, and pay close attention to the radiology bills that come in to be certain that the savings is passed on to them.
Radiology is an entry many people see on their hospital bills, but not everyone understands exactly what it means. It is an imaging technique that takes pictures of parts of the body for the purpose of proper treatment or diagnosis. MRIs, CAT scans, and x-rays are all examples of radiology.
Most private medical practices have to send their physical images to a local service in order to have them evaluated properly. For this reason, it is not uncommon for patients to be transported to area hospitals for treatment of broken bones, or evaluation of a patient complaining of chest pain. Local urgent centers often have patients transported via ambulance or Life-Flight, at great cost to the patient.
Few private medical practices are big enough, or wealthy enough to keep a radiologist on site 24-7. In fact, many hospitals have trouble affording to have radiologists on staff since the cost can exceed $1,000.00 per day. By sending the images to an offsite service, via online technology, a professional radiologist can evaluate the images and send a report within hours of the images being taken, allowing for ORIF surgery to be performed right away.
Ultrasound radiologists are frequently in a world all their own, and most OB/GYN practices can only support one of them. However, there are many things which can go wrong during a pregnancy, and sometimes images on an ultrasound are not exactly what they appear because a fetus is an actively moving target for them to measure and evaluate. By utilizing an off-site but Online service, more than one expert can see and evaluate the images in real time.
This ability to receive an instant second opinion is good for more than just pregnant patients. Emergency Room radiologists must use their own discretion when evaluating images of internal injuries or multiple fractures, and they are the ones who give the go-ahead for expensive and risky surgical procedures. Not only can an off-site service grant them a second set of eyes on the images, but if there is no radiologists available at the time, it shortens the time it takes for image evaluation to occur.
Having such specialists available in an online capacity not only lowers costs, but it allows smaller medical offices to offer more extensive testing at their facility. This means fewer ambulance trips from hospital to hospital. It can also mean that the radiologists work from home in an on-call capacity, which gives them more freedom to spend time with family and friends rather than working odd shifts at medical facilities.
These services are charging hospitals by the image rather than by the day, and the savings is measured in the thousands of dollars. It is typical for an image evaluation to be charged at less than $100.00 per image. Patients should know whether or not their hospital is being charged per-image or by the day, and pay close attention to the radiology bills that come in to be certain that the savings is passed on to them.
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You can get a summary of the things to consider before picking a provider of teleradiology services at http://www.spot-on-radiologist.com/services right now.
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