Rad Extenders Outperform Rad Residents

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Clearly the dept is operating outside the “range of normal variation” based off the reactions.
Before we even discuss “creep”. I’m always skeptical when I hear increasing volume; it may indicate that some studies (ct, mr, X-ray) aren’t truly necessary, thus freeing up time.
Also, before people are concerned about midlevel creep, to properly read a chest X-ray, it requires correlation with prior imaging and basal knowledge of CT imaging, for which radpeer is a somewhat illogical metric to use; the study looks into productivity but not temporal quality or referral reactions (an ER h/p is different quality than an IM h/p)
It appears they should explore internal home moonlighting, maybe a quicker pacs system, more efficient resident read out style (when I was a resident 10 years ago, the attending just told me the findings and we would go and dictate it, going through many scans; they clearly don’t have a shortage of attendings/residents/money, erecting a new hospital from what I read), exploring a “teaching” and “non teaching” X-ray service (possibly increasing efficiency), moonlighting low probability xrays such as outpatients or those performed at small community centers to old trainees, put pressure on referral services to leverage finances, and to “stop chasing scans.” Extender may have utility for fielding phone calls and general reading room coordination but comparing them to residents is illogical and nonproductive for patient care.
None of that matters. Clearly, the bigwigs are thinking about radiology extenders and possible midlevel creep into radiology. This study (and others that came out recently) is not something that someone is doing for fun. There's clearly an agenda. It would be a bastion of cost savings. Imagine setting up residency-equivalent certification programs where NPs and PAs train in parallel with residents and can get certified to read x-rays, CTs, or MRIs. The hospital would have an endless cheap supply of labor, very much so like what is happening in all the other specialties. Pay an academic radiologist a few % more a year, and there will be plenty that are willing to sell out and sign on.

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None of that matters. Clearly, the bigwigs are thinking about radiology extenders and possible midlevel creep into radiology. This study (and others that came out recently) is not something that someone is doing for fun. There's clearly an agenda. It would be a bastion of cost savings. Imagine setting up residency-equivalent certification programs where NPs and PAs train in parallel with residents and can get certified to read x-rays, CTs, or MRIs. The hospital would have an endless cheap supply of labor, very much so like what is happening in all the other specialties. Pay an academic radiologist a few % more a year, and there will be plenty that are willing to sell out and sign on.
That seems like such a liability and super inefficient. Wouldn't the physician want to do a full read if he's the one signing anyway? I know if I was a radiologist in that position I wouldn't trust an NP MRI read one bit. This would seem like you're paying two people to do the same job twice.
 
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That seems like such a liability and super inefficient. Wouldn't the physician want to do a full read if he's the one signing anyway? I know if I was a radiologist in that position I wouldn't trust an NP MRI read one bit. This would seem like you're paying two people to do the same job twice.
No, because the suits will force the attending to sell out, cough cough, I mean teach their craft to said midlevels. After a few years they bump up the number of midlevels and fire physicians. The midlevel does the read and the dipsh.it attending just signs and absorbs all liability. Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

It doesn’t matter if you don’t trust them. You don’t like it, find a new job because youll have a line of mo.ron.ic (Seriously? This word is censored??) comrades behind you to fill the position.

This is basically the agenda in almost every field, taken straight from the blueprint of the original offenders: our anesthesia colleagues. Even surgeons are starting to teach midlevels more and more (I’ve seen first hand).

It’s time for physicians to band together and take back our profession. Join PPP. Literally the only group doing anything about this.
 
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That seems like such a liability and super inefficient. Wouldn't the physician want to do a full read if he's the one signing anyway? I know if I was a radiologist in that position I wouldn't trust an NP MRI read one bit. This would seem like you're paying two people to do the same job twice.
Lol. Has that stopped encroachment in all the other specialties? Physicians are still being named in lawsuits where something their NPs or PAs did and they signed off on, often even without looking at the patient. These physicians still did it. They were forced to (for fear of retaliation or losing a job) or they got paid to do so. Honestly, this liability thing is not a barrier like some of you think.
 
I wonder about the level of detail the UPenn attendings are expecting on their daily ICU CXR reads. If they are detailing every single opacity and every single line and tube on every radiograph every single day well then you are just wasting your time.

Stable lines and tubes.
Comment on the lungs
+/- pneumothorax or pleural effusions, better or worse.
osseous structures are stable.

sign report.
 
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