Mandatory standards for radiology practices.

The accreditation process for radiology practices is changing. The incoming standards – the Nation Safety and Quality Medical Imaging Scheme is being rolled out. For radiology practices to continue billing Medicare for eligible procedures, the practice must comply with the new standards. New requirements for practices include more stringent requirements for business management and clinical governance, more evidence of clinical skills competency and supervision for clinical staff and greater transparency data management.

A key change is that the accreditation audit will move from a desktop, document review audit, to an onsite inspection of the radiology clinic. There is a focus on how processes are implemented with the auditors wanting to see how the service is conducted and track patients through their journey at the radiology practice. Processes for referral matching, timely reporting and escalation of abnormal results must be demonstrated to the auditor.

Data governance and information management and cybersecurity are increasingly important, along with demonstrated processes for management of patient deterioration and medication management both of which are important for practices doing interventional radiology services.

The HBS are clinicians, who have experience in business and quality management and accreditation. The HBS accreditation program supports you at all stages of the process – update procedures and clinical protocols, skills competency and training plans for clinical and admin teams, equipment maintenance and calibration templates and data management and cybersecurity processes.

HBS stays with you on the accreditation journey. We write detailed gap analysis reports and coach teams to implement practical solutions that can be integrated into day-to-day tasks. The HBS accreditation program is designer for multi-site providers who are looking for consistency in approach and practices who are multi- modal providing a range of radiology services.