Located in Tompkinsville, Kentucky, Monroe County Medical Center is a small, 49-bed acute-care hospital in rural South Central Kentucky. Medical imaging services include CT, MRI, ultrasound, bone density, digital mammography, general X-ray and fluoroscopy. In the past, images were read by a radiology generalist, working part-time as a contractor, who was on site for a few hours, three days a week. In many cases, radiology reports required a 48-hour wait. Mammography results could take three to six days. Hospital administrators recognized that radiology operations presented a ripe opportunity for improving the quality of the patient experience.
To that end, Monroe County Medical Center forged a relationship with a Chicago-based radiology service provider, Radiology Imaging Consultants, SC. These highly-trained specialists use InteleOne®, a distributed radiology solution from Intelerad that provides direct access to studies, priors and reports. InteleOne provides a single, highly productive environment in which RIC radiologists efficiently and collaboratively perform real-time professional readings, around the clock, regardless of where the radiologists or patients are located. Today, thanks to RIC and InteleOne, emergency patients at Monroe County Medical Center receive results in less than 30 minutes. Non-emergency X-ray readings are turned around in two hours or less, rather than two days.
