Hillsdale Hospital collaborates with the college to provide the best healthcare for its people.
Courtesy | Facebook
Hillsdale Hospital began a permanent partnership with the Florida-based Premier Radiology group Oct. 21 to reduce wait times for radiology test results.
“I am elated to welcome back our long-time partner, Premier Radiology,” Jeremiah J. Hodshire, president and CEO of Hillsdale Hospital, said in an email. “We have over a decade of experience with them, so I know firsthand the high-quality services they provide our community.”
Hillsdale Hospital has partnered with Premier Radiology on and off over the past couple of years, according to Kyrsten Newlon, Hillsdale Hospital’s director of communications and donor development. Oct. 21 marked the beginning of a permanent working relationship between the two entities.
“This is something that has been a long time in the making,” Newlon said. “We’ve been working for the past few years to find the best possible way forward with our radiology group. Ultimately, Premier Radiology was the best solution to that. We are only one day into the official start of the agreement with them and, already, some of our patients are returning to using our radiology services.”
The former radiology group Hillsdale Hospital used to interpret results was unable to keep up with the hospital’s needs, according to Jamie Caldwell, medical imaging manager at Hillsdale Hospital. With their radiology results backed up, patients at Hillsdale Hospital often had to wait abnormally long to receive their diagnoses.
“In less than one week, the new group has caught up 99% of the exams that were waiting,” Caldwell said.
Newlon said the abnormally long wait times for radiology results were uncomfortable for Hillsdale Hospital patients.
“It’s definitely something that really matters to us, that our patients have timely results,” Newlon said. “Timely results matter to clinical outcomes. They matter for our patients to put their minds at ease. Sometimes radiology tests are used to diagnose some scary conditions, and we want to make sure that those wait times are not causing stress for those patients.”
According to Newlon, the partnership was made as a solution to patients’ complaints of long wait times for test results.
“This is a direct response to our patients’ feedback, and we know they’re going to be a lot happier now,” Newlon said.
This change also ensures reduced stress on the radiology staff at the hospital, she added.
“This is a permanent partnership,” Newlon said. “Every hospital needs a radiology group to read test scans. We want to make sure our radiology team has a permanent, dependable relationship with the group moving forward so that when a provider orders a test, that test is performed and the provider and patient get those results right away.”
According to Newlon, the change reflects the hospital’s mission to improve the lives of its patients.
“Our mission is to be a guardian of the healthcare services for our community, and we’ve heard our patients,” Newlon said. “We know it’s going to help improve care across the board. It’s definitely something that we are looking forward to seeing the results of.”
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