EPtalk by Dr. Jayne 5/16/24

I was back in the patient role this week, visiting a different hospital for my annual MRI. I was glad that the high-risk clinic at Big Academic Medical Center offered me the option to have it done at a branch hospital, which shaved 30 miles off my travel.

The hospital is relatively new. Each person coming in is greeted personally and their appointment is searched in the system to make sure that accurate wayfinding directions are provided. When I arrived at the radiology waiting room, there was a check-in line backed up due to a patient who was confused about whether he could go home or not.

Once the line cleared and I made it to the desk, I noticed that there was a sign inviting people to check in via the kiosk, but unfortunately the sign had been completely blocked by the long line of waiting patients. Additionally, looking at the situation with a process improvement eye, I noticed that the kiosks were on the back wall of the waiting room – functionally behind you as you came in – so you weren’t likely to see them.

Part of my check-in involved a paper MRI screening form on a clipboard, so I’m not sure the kiosk would have helped anyway. I haven’t gotten a pacemaker, deep brain stimulator, or other implants since yesterday when I completed my online check-in, so I’m not sure why those questions couldn’t have been formulated into a patient questionnaire that I could have completed while in my pajamas.

The study went smoothly and I slept through a big part of it, which is a plus considering how noisy an MRI can be. The noises were a little different than I’m used to because it’s a different machine, and the last sequence sounded a bit like the cicadas that have descended on my area.

When the technician returned to the room to free me from the scanner, she said she noticed on my chart that I’m a physician and asked where I practiced. I talked about my work in virtual healthcare, and that I work from home for the most part. She said she thought that was cool, but when I mentioned that it probably wasn’t applicable to working in radiology, she said I would be surprised.

She mentioned that since the scanner manufacturer is based in Germany. The process for scanning patients there has more physician involvement. They actually have protocols for remote scanning, where the physicians operating the machines work from either a control center or from their homes. This facility recently piloted it, and although results were good, it relied heavily on having a certain level of support staff at the bedside that doesn’t match up with how roles are defined in the US. Additionally, the hospital felt that there was too much liability for it to be successful in our current environment, so the pilot concluded with a determination that more investigation is needed.

I always enjoy having a serendipitous moment like this and learning something new. But as far as other opportunities discovered on this visit, if you’re a radiology director, you might want to visit your waiting rooms and assess the positioning of signage and kiosks. 

HIMSS has opened its call for proposals for the 2025 conference, encouraging potential presenters via email to “lead conversations and make waves.” One could have some marketing fun with the “make waves” idea if the conference were held somewhere near a large body of water, such as San Diego or New Orleans, which would be welcome additions to the venue rotation in my opinion. Instead, next year’s event is in the desert, which doesn’t really apply.

Regardless, the email prompted me to go ahead and make my hotel reservation since Las Vegas hotels are often disgustingly expensive. I usually stay at The Palazzo and was sad to discover that even 10 months in advance, not a single standard suite was available on the Wednesday of the conference. I tried different occupancy types to confirm and had no luck. It just seemed weird. Maybe they are saving all of those for exhibitors rather than attendees? Nonetheless, if you’d like to submit a presentation, you can do so through June 10 at 5 p.m. Central time. In the mean time, I’ll stick with the two queen beds and see if any of my friends want to cost share since the room wasn’t cheap.

I’m always on the lookout for practical applications of AI technology that cut through the hype that currently swirls everywhere. This write-up from Missouri S&T caught my attention, especially a photo caption that had an electrical engineering graduate student looking through a dermatoscope to learn more about skin cancer since his team was working on solutions to improve detection. Joe Stanley, PhD is a professor in computer engineering and recently received a $440,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health on a project that will tag existing skin photographs then employ machine learning to expand the usefulness of existing data.

Given the fact that the solution will be used by physicians, it’s critically important that those developing it understand what goes on in a medical office and how physicians use data and tools to care for patients. There are far too many solution development teams out there that don’t take this vital step, so kudos to this one for helping researchers better understand the field they’re trying to improve.

Another headline that caught my attention this week was about a hospital getting rid of passwords for nurses. Unfortunately, it was a mindless blurb about transitioning from passwords to a badge reader system on an innovation unit. I’m not sure how innovative or newsworthy that really was since we had that at my primary hospital sometime in the neighborhood of 2016 and I’m sure it was at other places before that. Must have been a slow news day at Becker’s, or maybe just a diligent placement effort by a solid marketing team.

I heard from a reader this week who has been forced to participate in his company’s Return to Office program despite the fact that none of his team works in the local office. Apparently the company is trying to promote “new, exciting offerings in the cafeteria” to reduce the sting of coming to the office three days each week. The day’s offering was heavy on salami, onions, and other aromatics that I’m sure would make people prefer to be on a video call afterwards than in an in-person meeting. The office also issued guidance on how employees should communicate with family when they’re stuck at work at the end of the day, encouraging them to just say that they are delayed without hinting that meetings are running late or that anything is less than perfect at the company. That’s just about the worst micromanagement I’ve seen, and I’ve seen a lot.

What’s the worst micromanaging tactic that you’ve experienced from an employer? Leave a comment or email me.

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