Flow in IR dept

We had three rooms: one cardiac, the other two IR. Three-four techs, 2-4 nurses, depending on who was there/had days off (4-10s schedule, etc). One tech assigned to each room, was responsible for the flow in his/her room. One tech fielded as many calls as possible. Nurse assigned to each room helped w/set-up, etc. Nurses responsible for inventory (usually got techs to help check things while the nurse made out the "order"). BTW, we had two IRs but usually only one was assigned to procedures for the day (if we wanted to move faster we'd beg him to have one of the other Rads help). One Cardiologist was assigned to the cath room (as well as having other duties, of course!).

Hope this helps. I'm now at a smaller facility, one cath lab only. Not as hectic! :)

I think it's a tough area (IR, that is) because it's SO, SO dynamic -- it's the nature of the beast, I'm afraid. It may often SEEM disorganized (to the passers-by) but that's not necessarily the reality.

sunny, how do you do it now? Do you use a book for each room, or is it via computer, or do you have a dry-erase board in each room, or in a central area? It's always hard to fit in the last-minute in-pt procedures; I think juggling is universal, in Radiology.

(note the date on the original post, but this subject, as they say, is timeless, lol!)

There's a "usual time" that each case will take, and then there's the amount of time it REALLY takes, when unexpected surprises surface. Sometimes the para is slick and we can move on to something else quicker than we thought we'd be able to . . .

I'm not in Radiology anymore, just Cath Lab, but whenever I schedule a pt to come in for a pre-cath talk with the MD, I always warn them we could be delayed d/t an emergency, or a case that takes longer than we expected (e.g., difficult access) -- so I tell them to bring a book and make sure they understand that when the doc is free, he'll be able to see them. We try to stay in contact with the Short Stay Unit, too, letting the nurses know that we're delayed starting d/t ___________, and to please inform the pt (we haven't forgotten him!!).

Mondays are busy d/t sick pts admitted over the weekend who need procedures; Fridays are busy, well, because they're FRIDAYS! Pts shouldn't have to take up a hospital bed all weekend because they're waiting for a procedure -- so do it on Friday, of course!

Sometimes we had to arrange the schedule because the only MD who did such-and-such procedure, wasn't scheduled to do procedures that day, or was off, or something.

A central clerk in Radiology did the scheduling (according to guidelines, including which MDs were assigned and which rooms we could do procedures in), although the techs arranged their individual room schedule.

Who does your scheduling now? It should be someone who knows something of the procedures, so that person knows how to schedule what procedure in what room, given the staffing complement for that day. Each team in each room took care of the schedule, but was not an island, in that the teams communicated back and forth, sometimes switching pts (on paper) from one room to the other, as the room opened up. Hopefully we could keep the IR running from room to room, efficiently.