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TUESDAY, AUGUST 1, 2006
8:00 AM - 9:30 AM
MRI Suite Safety 101: What Can Be Done to Improve Patient Safety and Throughput


Robert Junk, AIA
Junk Architects, PC
Kansas City, MO

Tobias Gilk, M, Arch
Junk Architects, PC
Kansas City, MO

This session is a review of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) suite safety, including contributing suite design factors that led to the MRI death 5 years ago and the American College of Radiology (ACR) White Paper on MR Safety that followed. In this session, based largely on previous AHRA MRI suite safety presentations, the speakers will review general suite safety design principles, including the specific concerns with newer magnet systems. In addition to safety, this session will address magnetic contamination and the planning, operational, and financial consequences of poorly planned and built MRI suites.

You will learn to:

• Understand the physical hazards and liabilities in MRI suites and how to identify them at your facility
• Utilize available tools, such as the ACR White Paper on MR Safety, to benchmark safety protocols at your facility
• Understand the return on investment (ROI) that suite safety provides

8:00 AM - 9:30 AM
Self Control and Self Discipline: It's All About Me


Suzanne Metzger, PhD
Corporate Masters Inc
Plainfield, IN

Staying calm and productive under our daily pressures is a real challenge in this day and age! Dramatically improving our performance and our interaction with our peers and clients becomes more important as our world gets more busy and more complex. It’s not about changing the people we work with about. It’s about changing ourselves to effectively adjust to others. It's about stopping a critical inner voice and putting high self esteem into action.

You will learn to:

• Understand the importance of “self” in any endeavor
• Develop a workable “consideration” scale for you life and career
• Motivate and control from the inside out

8:00 AM - 9:30 AM
How to Develop a 5-Year Capital Plan


Sheila M. Sferrella, MAS, RT(R), CRA, FAHRA
Lehigh Valley Hospital and Health Network
Allentown, PA

This session repeated on August 2, 4:00 PM

Each year, most managers prepare a capital budget for their department(s). In order to truly put a capital budget into perspective, you need to prepare a 5-year capital plan. This puts requests for the next fiscal year into perspective because needs for the next several years have been identified in the plan.

You will learn to:

• Understand how to put a template together for a 5-year capital plan for all modalities
• Understand the components of a 5-year capital plan
• Understand how to identify useful life of the equipment
• Understand how to spread the replacement costs across 5 years

8:00 AM - 9:30 AM
Managing Clinical Ladders in Your Department


Mary Beth Esposito-Herr, PhD, RN
University of Maryland Medical Center, Baltimore, MD

Penny Olivi, MBA, RT(R), CRA, FAHRA
University of Maryland Center, Baltimore, MD

With staffing shortages, many radiology leaders have implemented clinical ladders as recruitment and retention strategies. This session will examine the historical implementation of clinical ladders in healthcare and offer ideas for the future to be able to successfully manage and maintain this important retention tool.

You will learn to:

• Evaluate your current clinical ladder process
• Understand changes that will need to be made to ensure future retention success
• Look beyond radiology for examples of successful clinical ladders
• Ensure relevancy of your clinical ladder with appropriate post-implementation, or maintenance, actions

8:00 AM - 9:30 AM
Documentation Requirement for CPT® and ICD-9 Compliance


Cheryl A. Schad, BA Ed, CPC, ACS-RA
Schad Medical Management
Mullica Hill, NJ

Learn what radiologists need to include in their written interpretations of radiological studies in order to receive appropriate reimbursement. Review the rules and regulations concerning the ordering of diagnostic tests, clinical indications, medical necessity, documentation of diagnostic tests, and Correct Coding Initiative (CCI). An order will be defined, and the form of an order and the exceptions to ordering regulations will be discussed. Medical necessity, how it is impacted by clinical indications, and how it should be expressed will be covered. A sample dictation template for diagnostic radiology will be provided. The source of the various fields of information within the template will be discussed. Find out how to document multiple studies within the same radiology report. The general instructions for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) CCI edits will be discussed as they pertain to radiology. Find out how to achieve compliance with various regulatory agencies. All sources quoted will be provided for future reference.

You will learn to:

• Recognize appropriate documentation for accurate Current Procedural Terminology (CPT®) code selection
• Recognize appropriate documentation for accurate ICD-9 selection
• Achieve CPT and ICD-9 compliance

8:00 AM - 9:30 AM
Lessons Learned...Happiness Earned


Samuel Splear, AA, BA
Presentations By Splear
Milan, IL

Each of us face daily challenges in our lives at home and at work. Effectively coping with those challenges can determine our personal happiness and the quality of our relationships with others. Sam Splear’s family faced a significant emotional event in their lives when their 9 year-old son was attacked by a neighborhood dog. In Lessons Learned...Happiness Earned, Sam Splear will share 10 strategies for happiness that he has learned as a result of that traumatic event. Each strategy is tied to a challenge that he and his family faced during their sons recovery process, and provides participants with ideas to use in their personal lives both on & off the job.

You will learn:

• How negativity and apathy can damage family and work relationships
• 10 strategies that can be applied in our lives immediately for building personal happiness
• At least 3 techniques for building self esteem in children.

9:45 AM – 11:00 AM
Tuesday General Session


Keynote Speaker: Mike McKinley
Generously sponsored by Fujifilm Medical Systems

11:00 AM – 2:30 PM
Exhibit Hall Open
Lunch served 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM

2:30 PM - 3:30 PM
MRI Suite Buildout 201: Developing Your Next MRI Project


Robert Junk, AIA
Junk Architects, PC
Kansas City, MO

Tobias Gilk, M, Arch
Junk Architects, PC
Kansas City, MO

This session focuses on issues radiology administrators need to know before planning, designing and building your next Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) project. In this presentation, the speakers will build upon the information from the proceeding course (MRI Suite Safety 101) and take you thorough a number of the thoughts and considerations when contracting with equipment vendors, hiring an architect, selecting a contractor. The speakers recommend that attendees to this session attend MRI Suite Safety 101, or have seen one of their previous AHRA MRI suite safety presentations.

You will learn to:

• Contract with a single point of responsibility for most image quality issues
• Select architects, engineers and contractors who will protect your equipment
• Investment
• Anticipate the changes in MRI applications and plan your next suite accordingly

2:30 PM – 4:00 PM
Delivering Difficult Information
(note: this session is 30 minutes longer than other sessions during this time block)


Natalie R. Manor
Natalie Manor & Associates
Merrimack, NH

Natalie Hoffmann
Natalie Manor & Associates
Merrimack, NH

This session repeated on August 2, 8:00 AM

One of the most difficult, complicated, complex and most avoided aspect of leadership/management is delivering difficult information to people, whether they are staff, superiors, or subordinates. What if you could deliver information - negative or not - in a timely way that would increase performance and productivity? What if you could actually not have to feel your way through tough information and could share it with confidence and effectiveness? Now you can. Join Natalie Manor and Natalie Hoffmann for a session that will erase the need to delay bringing bad news to someone ever again. After 20 years of working with senior leaders in the area of leadership and communication, the speakers can help you with the process of delivering and receiving difficult information so you can achieve a successful outcome each and every time.

You will learn:

• Preparation techniques for gathering information to increase others’ performance and productivity
• The top ten 10 list of red flags to help you understand that you need to take action and help another improve their effectiveness
• The top 6 questions to ask in order to get to the facts of any situation and help skip the emotion of the moment

2:30 PM - 3:30 PM
Maximizing the Imaging Center Revenue Cycle


Patricia Kroken, FACMPE, CRA
Healthcare Resource Providers, LLC
Albuquerque, NM

The imaging center revenue cycle involves much more than billing and collections activity. While good business practices in the billing and collections area are essential, the revenue cycle in fact begins when the patient is scheduled for a procedure. From this point on, there are numerous problems that can occur. This means there are also many opportunities to influence revenue and profitability for the imaging center. Often, problems occur due to inconsistency in processes throughout the entire revenue cycle, the failure to adequately train personnel or from the lack of sufficient resources. This session is designed to review the imaging center revenue cycle, including the various process steps that can impact overall efficiency and profitability. Distinct processes will be discussed and the overall workflow outlined. From there, common problems are identified and suggestions for correction provided. The goal is to provide specific, actionable steps that can be applied in the imaging center environment. In addition, billing/collections activities will be outlined to enable center managers to better speak the language of the billing department.

You will learn to:

• Understand the full imaging center revenue cycle
• Identify opportunities to improve processes ultimately related to profitability
• Analyze various steps in the revenue cycle

2:30 PM - 3:30 PM
Leadership Development and Succession Planning: A Model for Medical Imaging Services


Roger Rhodes, CRA, FAHRA
Covenant Healthcare
Milwaukee, WI

Radiology administrators know that outstanding front-line leaders such as managers, supervisors, coordinators, and Team leaders are critical to success in medical imaging. Yet, very few resources are ever allocated or used for their individual Development and growth outside of a hospital or health systems generic leadership Development programs. In this session, the speakers will share with you the imaging specific leadership Development model that has been developed and implemented at the Covenant Healthcare System in Milwaukee, WI. This program will outline the key components to starting the program and will share Covenants Developmental program and succession plan for leaders in imaging services.

You will learn to:

• Understand the key components of an imaging services leadership Development program
• Develop a succession plan for key leadership roles in the Imaging department
• Start your own leadership Development program in your Imaging department
• Build support and cost justification for your leadership Development program

2:30 PM - 3:30 PM
Reading Rooms and File Rooms to Paperless/Filmless Made Easy: NOT!


Richard Ragovin, BS, LRT
Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital
New Brunswick, NJ

This session is designed to take the participants through the parts of Picture Archiving and Communication Systems (PACS) that the “experts” don’t tell you about when they are selling and advising you. This session will discuss the day-to-day operational changes, how to downsize and educate your staff, reading room design and change, “wet readings” and developing a PACS Team.

You will learn to:

• Help your staff and radiologists make the transition to PACS
• Design and efficient system that works for you
• Deliver a better service for your patients

2:30 PM – 3:30 PM
Taking Control of CT Contrast Injection


David Piazzo, BS, RT
E-Z-EM
Norwood, MA

Sixty-four slice, dual energy, and dynamic studies have changed many of the rules of contrast injection.  Due to a lack of understanding, many studies are still done at single or four-slice injection protocols.  The purpose of this talk is to focus on the basic workings of a contrast injector, what it accomplishes and how it can be adjusted and used in different ways to get different results.  The body of the talk is on exactly what happens inside the body as contrast is administered: how contrast travels from its administration site to the heart and through the cardiovascular system. 

You will learn:

• The best injector speeds and concentrations to maximize imaging excellence
• Guidelines that can be simply applied

3:30 PM – 4:00 PM
Break

2:30 PM - 5:30 PM
Interventional Radiology Coding: Is it Time for Dedication?


Jeff Majchrzak, BA, RT(R), NMTCB, RCC
MedLearn
St Paul, MN

Bernie Van Someren, BS, RT
MedLearn
St. Paul, MN

Interventional radiology (IR) coding and billing is one of the most complex challenges radiology managers face in their day-to-day operations. The adverse effects of improper interventional radiology (IR) coding are well known by radiology administrators. Improper IR coding results in compliance risk, loss revenue, and extra background work for the interventional radiology staff. The national coding error rate is currently above 80%. This program will assist the radiology manager in assessing his current revenue cycle and capture and the need for dedicated coders. The program will provide guidance to the implementation of a dedicated coder program including job description elements. The program will provide instruction on how to maintain a viable coding and billing process.

You will learn to:

• Assess the interventional radiology departments revenue cycle and capture
• Implement a dedicated coding/billing process
• Maintain a viable coding/billing process

2:30 PM - 5:30 PM
JCAHO 2006-2007 Update for Freestanding Imaging and Diagnostic Centers Not Associated with a Hospital


Judith M. Atkins, RN, MSN
McKenna & Associates
Charleston, WV

Freestanding imaging centers surveyed by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) must meet the 2007 standards. This session will cover issues found in freestanding imaging centers and will assist the participants in preparing for unannounced surveys. Feedback will be provided on the results of survey and anticipated changes for 2007.

You will learn to:

• Describe the unannounced survey
• List the most noncompliant standards
• List 2 questions your staff will have to answer

4:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Improving Customer Service in Radiology


Brooke Billingsley
Perception Strategies, Inc
Indianapolis, IN

This session will demonstrate best practices from healthcare organizations across the United States. This session will provide you with management tools that help employees deliver exceptional customer service. You will hear stories of imaging centers that have utilized these tools and gained market share.

You will learn to:

• See customer service through the eyes of the consumer
• Manage difficult customers
• Understand best practices from imaging centers across the United States.

4:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Accountability, Delegation and Measurable Goals


Kenneth Fazzino, AS, RT(R), CRA
Philips
Midlothian, VA

This session repeated on August 3, 11:30 AM

Today’s work environment continues to expand work responsibilities while the available work force continues to shrink. Departmental directors and managers need to cover an extensive breadth of business duties along with Team resources. These duties often include the normal day-to-day business issues of running an efficient department while juggling Team member issues, vacancies, and budget management. Corporate goals, departmental goals, personal goals, and individual Team member goals are added to the stressful day of managing in our profession. This course will give you tools to leverage your entire Team and align them with the organizational goals that help your healthcare system and your department. This course will show you a goal setting strategy that will raise the accountability of your Team and tie directly into their year-end evaluations. The Team helps set their goals along with you, which leads to ownership of the goals. The art of delegation and accountability will help you manage.

You will learn to:

• Set goals
• Measure and track progress
• Raise accountability

4:00 PM - 5:00 PM
How to Audit APC Charts


Andrei M. Costantino, MHA, CPC-H, CPC
CodeRyte
Harrisburg, PA

Trinity Health
Farmington Hills, MI

This session repeated on August 1, 4:00 PM

The most effective way to measure APC accuracy is through periodic and continuous auditing with a focus on those services currently paid under APCs. An effective audit process must be designed that outlines all the needed components and processes. This session will focus on developing an objective, choosing data elements, collecting a sAM ple, interpreting results, and writing a findings report. The session to also cover how to audit and monitor the billing process and charge master. Finally, the session will deal with how to handle overpayments/underpayments discovered during an audit.

You will learn to:

• Plan and organize and APC audit
• Use effective reporting of audit results and benchmarking
• Handle overpayments/underpayments and compliance issues.

4:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Managing the Digital X-Ray Department


Jacqueline Gallet, PhD
Eastman Kodak Company
Rochester, NY

Todd Minnigh
Eastman Kodak Company
Rochester, NY

The advent of digital x-ray affords considerable advantages for overexposure and underexposure, automatic repeat analysis, improvement of dynamic range, and automatic tabulation and distribution of images. With it also comes opportunities for distributed review and approval of images in the reading room and a decreased dependence on film. As analog film is being replaced by digital capture and output devices, the traditional management tools analog film enabled also have disappeared. Familiar sites such as centralized repeat/reject bins, and the easy management of relative exposure by review of image density and tracking of sizes used by film consumption are no longer valid in this new digital environment. Many computed radiography (CR) manufacturers have developed tools for tracking these new metrics. To date, these systems have tracked the data system by system, rather than by considering the radiology department as a whole unit. This presentation illustrates an actual case study of a department wide digital x-ray quality control (QC) management system. This QC management system can be viewed as the department administrator’s “digital dashboard” for digital x-ray. The relative impact on productivity and quality in a hospital radiology department will be addressed in view of this new digital QC tool.

You will learn to:

• Understand the management metrics of an x-ray department that are impacted by the transition to digital
• Understand the tools that exist today for managing digital x-ray quality and productivity
• Learn the direction of industry through a case study of a next generation version of such a system

4:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Justifying PACS Regardless of Size


Steven Walter, BS, RT(R)
North Shore Medical Center
Salem, MA

The deployment of a Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS) in community hospitals is now coming into its own. However, existing perceptions and lack of information continue to inhibit adoption of this technology. Probably the biggest deterrents to immediate deployment are lack of comfort with the technology by radiologists, radiology administrators, and hospital administration. This lack of comfort is further compounded by a capital investment that with an indeterminate Return on Investment (ROI). Additional concerns such as lack of acceptance by referring medical staff also contribute to delays in adoption of PACS technology. Community hospitals that are still struggling with the PACS question need to understand the tremendous potentials of this technology and the justifiability of the financial investment. With existing PC/Web based PACS technology, the decreasing costs associated with long-term archiving, and the more aggressive financial models that are targeting the community hospital market, PACS is a technology that is as essential to a medical imaging practice as a Computed Tomography (CT) scanner and should be as easily justified.

You will learn to:

• Identify enterprise selling-points for the necessary operational and administrative buy-in of PACS technology
• Understand the standardization and simplification of PACS products and technology on today’s market
• Understand and develop a financial model that supports PACS acquisition based on the elimination of operational costs

4:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Recognizing the Need for an Outpatient Imaging Center


W. Cannon King, MBA
Outpatient Imaging Affiliates
Nashville, TN

Hospital-based radiology departments are faced with more challenges to their long-term growth than ever before. Externally, independent or entrepreneurial-based imaging centers, often located within shouting distance of the hospital campus, are booming. A better informed patient population is no longer willing to battle the scheduling issues, long wait times, parking, and other bureaucratic issues inherent to a hospital-based environment for their outpatient exams. Local hospitals often have strong reputations and hospital-based radiology practices often have good relationships with referring physicians. All are assets that can be leveraged in the marketplace.

You will learn to:

• Recognize if you should be considering the Development of an outpatient-imaging center
• Assemble a compelling case to present to hospital administration
• Understand the pros and cons of different ownership approaches for developing an imaging center

5:30 PM - 6:30 PM
Strong Branding Creates a Competitive Edge


Peggy Wagner, CRA
Radiology Business Management Association
Rocklin, CA

This session repeated on August 2, 2:30 PM

Brands allow you to clearly define and communicate what you stand for, whether you’re the “lowest-cost provider,” provide the “fastest report turnaround,” are the “highest quality images” the “preferred choice” and so on. But you’ve got to decide what your brand stands for, and communicate that value proposition effectively and repeatedly. It’s not good enough to just run a quality radiology practice Whether you are hospital based or a free standing imaging center, you’ve got to let everyone know what sets you apart from your competition.

You will learn to:

• Identify ways to determine your brand
• Examine the essential components of a successful strategy for implementing a plan for branding Development and measurement
• Learn how branding will increase financial performance and also build strong internal and external relationships

5:30 PM - 6:30 PM
Manage This! 3 Secrets To Coaching Your Team To Greatness!


Jenifer Madson, BA
Wealth Journeys
Erie, CO

As a manager, you are a director of transformation for your organization. You are responsible for promoting the right environment for the growth of your Team. Ever feel like you were herding cats? Pushing a rope? It might be because you are stuck in a management paradigm that just doesn’t work. This session will teach you to cultivate the most fertile ground for Team growth into your management style for measurable, lasting change! You’ll learn to do more with less and enjoy yourself in the process. It’s not about becoming someone you’re not. It’s about learning how to become the best you can be and “enrolling” others to do the same!

You will learn to:

• Clarifiy specific and measurable outcomes
• Confront without being confrontational
• Coach the gap between where the Team is and where they want to be

5:30 PM - 6:30 PM
PACS Administration: Creating the Support Team


Wilbur L. Reddinger Jr., MS, RT(R)(CT)
John C. Lincoln Health Network
Phoenix, AZ

Implementing a Picture Archiving and Communications System (PACS) and subsequent staff training should not be treated as an event with an absolute end. PACS implementation and training should be an evolving process that includes the expansion of goals and ideals. This course will provide discussion relative to expanding the role of PACS administration to include diagnostic imaging support staff. The lecture will include discussion pertaining to various strategies that can be utilized for developing diagnostic imaging into PACS support personnel. The course will provide several competency-based learning models that include managing diagnostic imaging workflow issues. The course will discuss the expansion of a film library and/or imaging library into a department that can provide service and PACS support. The lecture will include discussion relative to the creation of new and expansion of current diagnostic imaging job descriptions.

You will learn to:

• Create, expand and include a list of competencies that describe the role of PACS support personnel
• Create or expand job descriptions to include diagnostic imaging personnel as PACS support personnel
• Develop a strategy for converting a film library or image library into a PACS support department

5:30 PM - 6:30 PM
Setting Up A Cardiac CT Program: One Community Hospital’s Experience

Brook Ward, MPA, RT(R)
Bronson Healthcare Group, Kalamazoo, MI

Implementing a new service can be a challenging, scary, and exciting time for Radiology managers. In an environment of increasing turf wars between Radiologists and other providers, these changes can magnify the intensity within these battles. This session will review how one non-profit community hospital took their long-standing CT department and implemented a Cardiac CT program. This moved the CT department from a good basic computed tomography service to an excellent advanced program, which provided Coronary CTA's and Calcium Scoring in a physician collaborative environment. These two new cardiac services were targeted at two completely different audiences and were implemented using different strategies and tactics. To increase the chances of success, a strong multidisciplinary team was used to work on the tactics. The session will include details how this organization moved from the planning phase to implementation of the service and share the outcomes one year after implementation. In the planning phase, the presentation will discuss the evaluation which included review of the organizations mission, strategic plan, market analysis and buy in from the necessary parties. The planning phase also included completing industry research, budgeting, goal setting, and gaining formal approval.  The implementation discussion will involved details about training, equipment, vendor interaction, marketing, communication, protocol development, physician collaboration, and many others. Outcomes one year later will demonstrate the excellent impact on the organization's volumes, revenue, satisfaction rates (patients, staff, & physicians), and reputation within the community.

You will learn to:

• Identify what the impact/outcomes of a good Cardiac CT program could have on your organization.
• Understand what phases and detailed tactics are used to implement Cardiac CT programs
• Understand how physician collaboration can help eliminate turf wars and how to encourage this behavior.
• Define effective techniques, strategies, communication tools, and processes to help improve the odds of implementing Cardiac CT programs.

7:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Awards, Fellows, and Partners in Learning Dinner
By Invitation Only
Generously sponsored by GE Healthcare