North East and Yorkshire Trusts Implement Technology for Quicker Scan Results

Key Takeaways

NHS England collaborates with Hexarad to expedite hospital scan result deliveries in North East and South Yorkshire.
OptiRad software improves workflow efficiency, enabling quicker diagnosis and reporting.
Projected shortfall of consultant radiologists necessitates better use of existing radiology capacity.

Partnership to Enhance Radiology Efficiency

NHS England has bolstered its collaboration with Hexarad, a radiology transformation platform, to accelerate the delivery of hospital scan results for patients across North East England and South Yorkshire. This partnership aims to reduce the waiting time between a scan and its results, providing a more efficient healthcare experience.

Hexarad specializes in workflow software that assists hospitals and clinicians in optimizing the management and reporting of diagnostic imaging. The rollout of its OptiRad workflow intelligence software will span nine organizations within the North East and South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw Integrated Care System.

Participating NHS trusts include:

– Barnsley Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
– Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
– Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
– The Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust
– Sheffield’s Children NHS Foundation Trust
– Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
– South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust
– North Cumbria University Hospitals NHS Trust
– County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust

Farzana Rahman, chief executive and co-founder of Hexarad, emphasized the importance of providing radiology departments with the necessary tools to manage their services effectively. She noted, “Without the tools to see what’s happening across their service in real time, capacity gets wasted and patients wait longer than they should. OptiRad changes that.” With this new system, clinicians gain better visibility into their workflows, enabling faster patient results.

Recent statistics reveal that nearly a million patients were left waiting over a month for critical scan results, including X-rays and MRIs. Hexarad’s software is designed to streamline the routing of scans to the most suitable specialists, thereby aiming to significantly cut down reporting times. In one case, use of OptiRad led to a 12% increase in reporting output, reduced turnaround times by 18%, and generated annual savings of about £150,000 on outsourced reporting, all without adding to the radiologist workforce.

Industry projections indicate a troubling shortfall of consultant radiologists, expected to reach 31% and potentially rise to 40% by 2028. Hexarad asserts that the NHS must enhance the utilization of existing radiology resources instead of solely relying on workforce expansion to address the growing demand.

In August 2024, Hexarad successfully secured €13 million (£11.2 million) in funding, with reinvestment from current shareholders. Earlier in the year, the platform demonstrated its efficacy in reducing diagnostic waiting times during a pilot program at North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust, ahead of further implementation at West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospital NHS Trust in June 2024.

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