I recently had the privilege of speaking with Tom Kushman, a VP with IMAGINEradiology in charge of Strategic Partners & Special Customer Relations. Tom is a former radiology administrator, who is the Chair of the RBMA Board of Directors and Technology Task Force, and is now planning on moving to St. Thomas to manage another radiology group.

Tom told me that for the last three months he has talking with radiology administrators, asking them what are their stay awake issues. Tom said there are 10,000 issues and it’s a different issue every night. According to Tom, “It’s chaos out there.”

Here are the top three general issues with radiology administrators right now.

#1 – Time Crunch
There is a general perception that technology contributes to, if not in fact causes, the time crunch. We’ve probably all experienced something like this. We got cell phones so that we could work while on the go, but it just made work a constant. We get texts and emails while eating dinner.

Tom observed that there is a search for “Quality Time” at work now, not just with the family anymore. We have to find a way to peel away the extraneous, time-consuming issues like insignificant employee problems so we can focus on the things that really make a difference.

#2 – Eroding Bottom Line
In today’s environment, income isn’t producing the outcome wanted for the time, energy, and effort invested. We’ve got to find a way to increase Patient Collections. He observed that most administrators think on a cash basis unless they are considering large investment like building or primary imaging equipment. One thing that particularly annoys them is known and unknown “add-on” costs.

#3 – People
Administrators spend a lot of time dealing with whining whether it is with radiologists or staff. They spend a lot of time dealing with “problem creators.” Radiology administrators spend a lot of time and energy in change management. The big question is “how do I get them to stop doing X and start doing Y?”