As a large health care system with both academic and community hospitals, we have always had our “go-to” radiologists and technologists to lean on. Anytime we had a questions about protocol, practice, or equipment, we would turn to these individuals. However, we consistently heard from both professional and technical teams that there was a need to place structure around these groups of “go-tos.” Academic and community teams often practiced in different circles with different workflows and that was problematic. A need for standardization by modality regardless of location and need for modality education were opportunities highlighted in our efforts to function as one system. This feedback resulted in developing Modality Triads.
While the name is a little deceiving, as there are often more than three individuals in each Triad, these small groups of academic and community radiologists, technologists and physicists provide the clinical and technical expertise to ensure each modality has a team guiding clinical practice across our system. In addition to these three components, our Triads also consist of radiology managers, team leads and our radiology IT team. We have one radiology manager assigned to each Triad who holds them together by facilitating meetings, ensuring questions posed to the Triad are answered/projects move along, escalating issues as needed, and tracking the work done. Our team leads are techs identified as on-site points of contact who receive updates and communications from the Triads and are responsible for disseminating this information to their on-site teams. In addition, they (as well as anyone in radiology) can reach out to the Triads when issues or questions come up locally. And finally, Radiology IT is engaged as a close partner with each Triad as many projects or workflows require IT participation.
Over the course of this first year, our Modality Triads have been developed with an accompanying SOP that guides their roles and responsibilities. Over time, the Triads have become more defined. We anticipate their continued growth and participation in many upcoming initiatives.
Important things to consider/lessons learned when developing/implementing Triads:
- Be intentional when selecting team members – consider participation based on structure and ensure physics and IT participation.
- Don’t prescribe meeting cadence or communication as each Triad may have different needs. We wanted our teams to perform based on what was needed for their particular modality. We only have prescribed meetings to meet regulatory compliance, i.e. CT protocol review.
- Have a tool for tracking work performed. Having a tracking tool at the start will help the Triads stay organized. Some modalities were inundated from the moment they were created. This tracking tool would have been very helpful.
- Communicate initially and send reminders that Triads are out there. It is important to remind all radiology teams our Triads exist and how they can be reached. Outlook distribution lists were a helpful tool to make communication easy. Take every opportunity to engage the Triads with decision-making, developing SOPs/workflows, equipment reviews, education. If they are out of site, they will be out of mind.
- Leadership support and follow up is critical. As we are rounding our first anniversary of our Triads, we are taking time to meet with the Triad managers to review this year and prepare for 2023. We want to ensure they have what they need, how we can improve what they do, and how they are best supported.
Celebrate! The Triads have taken on additional responsibilities and have provided support and guidance for our entire radiology service line. We need to recognize their efforts and celebrate their successes. Use communication tools such as your department newsletter to recognize their work.
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