In March 2014, Mansfield General Hospital and Shelby Memorial Hospital joined the OhioHealth system, a 47-county regional health system that’s now made up of 11 hospitals, 200-plus ambulatory facilities, and 29,000 employees, physicians and volunteers — all working together to serve patients in the Buckeye State.
OhioHealth Mansfield and Shelby Hospitals’ desire to enhance and expand services for the local community included the areas of primary care, oncology, cardiology and orthopedics. The hospitals’ efforts included the opening of the OhioHealth Heart and Vascular Institute and, subsequently, the expansion of our imaging services to include interventional radiology services and computed tomography angiography.
To complete the expansion, we needed a fully integrated, unified radiology solution that would seamlessly integrate with our existing imaging operations, respond to our long-term growth needs and improve care within our community by offering patients real-time access to their personal imaging archive.
Riverside Radiology and Interventional Associates, a leading Midwestern radiology provider, met all of these requirements and was selected to provide advanced vascular and interventional radiology services at OhioHealth Mansfield and Shelby Hospitals. Today, nearly two years later, the partnership has expanded to provide a broad array of clinically advanced medical imaging services that are measurably improving care in our community.
Along the way, we’ve learned a lot about what it takes for a radiology transition to succeed. Here are the three most critical steps:
1. Plan
The initial step in the transition involved fully understanding OhioHealth Mansfield and Shelby Hospitals’ radiology service levels. We also conducted a deep dive into all operational, clinical and financial aspects of the hospital’s radiology practices, including an analysis of existing protocols, workflows, staffing and capabilities.
Based on these findings, Riverside Radiology and Interventional Associates provided a detailed plan to maintain continuity across all departments during the transition.
2. Communicate
During the OhioHealth Mansfield and Shelby Hospitals’- Riverside Radiology and Interventional Associates transition, we created deliberate communication channels specifically to address staff questions and concerns.
We also communicated the Riverside Radiology and Interventional Associates specified changes and how those processes and procedures would be different moving forward. In addition, medical staff was provided contacts at other partner facilities to ease transition-related uncertainties and answer questions.
3. Lead
As we learned during the initial OhioHealth Mansfield and Shelby Hospitals-Riverside Radiology and Interventional Associates transition, the right leadership can be the difference between success and failure. It creates accountability, limits risk, empowers employees and creates the right culture for a smooth transition to occur.
With these goals in mind, Riverside Radiology and Interventional Associates incorporated an onsite medical director, Eric Vikingstad, M.D., to assist in the integration of the hospital’s cardiology, vascular surgery and interventional radiology departments as well as contribute toward a team of specialists to address patient needs around vascular services. As Medical Director, Dr. Vikingstad is also an integral part of the following:
• Standards and policies: Meetings held quarterly to review existing policies and procedures for the purpose of maintaining the highest quality of care.
• Process improvement: The radiology team works with the medical staff to improve existing service lines across all departments within the entire hospital.
• Education: Radiologists support the hospital’s medical staff and their patients using practical methods, including physician-to-physician phone calls, physician-to-patient follow-ups and one-on-one meetings.
• Quality and consistency: Hospitals must have access to the right technology platform and operations center to enable medical staff to access the right providers at the right time.
Dr. Vikingstad has established strong relationships with the medical staff, and he continues to serve as Medical Director and a liaison to OhioHealth Mansfield and Shelby Hospitals’ tumor board, cancer committee, ethics committee, performance improvement committee and other important panels.
In addition, these strong relationships have allowed us to build on the initial successes of our imaging partnership and coordinated transition process. In late 2017, Riverside Radiology and Interventional Associates began providing around-the-clock sub-specialty diagnostic coverage, dedicated mammography and body-imaging capabilities, and sub-specialized musculoskeletal radiology support to orthopedic surgeons and sports medicine physicians at OhioHealth Mansfield and Shelby Hospitals.
Furthermore, with an average stroke study turnaround time of 4.9 minutes, Riverside Radiology and Interventional Associates continues to improve outcomes for stroke victims in our region. Our robust medical staff and comprehensive radiology offering helped launch our stroke program at OhioHealth Mansfield and Shelby Hospitals. Since then, we’ve become a certified stroke center and a renowned regional tertiary care center that’s earning a reputation as OhioHealth’s “Northern Hub for Acute Care.”
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