Teamwork a Must for Improving Quality in Radiology Practice
Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results.
—Andrew Carnegie
Quality improvement (QI) has been described as the continuous effort by everyone in healthcare to make changes that lead to better patient outcomes, enhanced system performance and professional development. For radiology, this means not only doing our own work, but also finding time to work with others to improve our practice—case in point, we present this column not as "My Turn," but as "Our Turn."
 Stephen J. Swensen, M.D., M.M.M. |  C. Daniel Johnson, M.D., M.M.M. |
Working together takes the form of peer collaboration on patient care as well as participation in quality teams established to evaluate the services we provide. Those who use our services are also part of the team and we must seek their input as well.
One quality team of which we are particularly proud is the RSNA Quality Improvement Committee (QIC) that we lead. Among its accomplishments are a compilation of information on QI methods, tools and projects from external organizations and agencies, the QI Roundtable in Radiology and a course on QI concepts, challenges and methods. Work continues on an online program to help individuals and teams create QI projects, as well as templates for structured radiology reports and a process to communicate critical test results.
At RSNA 2008, QIC will offer for the second year its daylong course focusing on individual and team-based QI projects. The committee will also co-sponsor with the RSNA Radiology Informatics Committee a course on using information technology to improve quality and safety in radiology. Several quality roundtable sessions will also be convened during RSNA 2008.
Be sure to check out RSNA.org/quality, a dynamic source for information and resources on quality improvement in radiology—an endeavor that we are all in together.
