August 17, 2010 — NightHawk Radiology Services, a provider of radiology solutions to radiology groups across the United States, announced the availability of its Client Peer Review (CPR), part of its Quality Assurance Program, to provide an objective measure of effective communication and reporting accuracy based on the impact on patient outcomes.
While third-party peer review is an important component of radiology checks and balances and a requirement for meeting Joint Commission, pay-for-performance (P4P) and ACR standrards, it is a challenging and time-consuming process that is difficult for practices to manage and can lead to late, unreported and inaccurate data.
"The administrative burden of maintaining a peer review program takes radiologists' valuable time away from patient care and growing their business," said Timothy Myers, MD, Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer for NightHawk. "Our CPR program can help breathe new life into their practice with a convenient, reliable peer review solution."
Peer Review from NightHawk adheres to Quality Assurance Program standards based on how patient care is impacted, rather than the difficulty in reading a report. The ability to generate accurate and comprehensive peer review reports is also a valuable asset for demonstrating value to hospitals, executive committees and standards-based committees like the Joint Commission. The program is accessed through a secure portal, which ensures that reports are timely, and its in-depth reporting makes valuable performance data easily accessible to the practice.
The NightHawk Peer Review program also allows radiology practices to benchmark against peers as an important part of improving their standard of care. "NightHawk's Peer Review program can help radiologists identify strengths and weaknesses in their practices as they benchmark performance on local and national levels," adds Myers. "We are pleased to introduce this value-added service to our partners in the radiology community."
