Journal of the American College of Radiology : JACR
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The effect on efficiency of patient care in a busy academic interventional radiology practice was studied by the analysis of procedure times both before and after the implementation of a computerized interactive daily schedule. Procedure start and end times were retrospectively collected from the department's quality assurance database for two identical 6-month periods, representing the time before and after the deployment of the software. The delay in the start of the first case, the time between cases, and the time required to complete each day's work were compared for the two periods. ⋯ The use of a computerized interactive daily schedule has a positive effect on departmental efficiency by allowing more cases to be performed without lengthening the workday.
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How should academic medical departments be governed? Models of governance span a wide spectrum between autocracies, in which important decisions are made by a single individual, to democracies, in which each member enjoys a voice in decision making. Despite the fact that more participatory governance models are the norm in practice settings outside of academia, many academic physicians seem to take an autocratic model more or less for granted. In fact, however, most medical schools and universities do not mandate a governance system that vests authority in a powerful chairperson, and departments frequently enjoy more latitude than they suppose in determining how to govern themselves. Because an organization's effectiveness is powerfully influenced by its governance structure, academic physicians should give serious consideration to this subject, to ensure that academic medicine is well prepared to meet the many challenges now before it.