Contrast Management
What is CONTRAST by Qaelum?
The Contrast Management module of the FOQAL platform monitors and analyzes contrast media usage in CT examinations. Through advanced statistics, distribution graphs and benchmarks, it identifies trends and highlights cases where extra training and optimization are needed. It is a powerful solution for a comprehensive analysis of the contrast usage and related costs with the goal of continuous efficiency improvement.
Why CONTRAST by Qaelum?
Managing and understanding the usage of contrast in your facility has a direct impact on cost reduction and maintaining the highest level of quality, while improving sustainability. Due to the complexity and vast amounts of data, the most efficient way to do this is by using Qaelum’s Contrast Management tool. The analysis allows for a comprehensive management with a full overview of contrast usage, including wasted contrast, and the corresponding financial costs. By providing advanced analytics and smart insights on contrast dose per program, body part, device or operator, it determines cases where optimization is required. Contrast Management by Qaelum is your invaluable assistant to improve efficiency and productivity, while reducing costs, when it comes to the usage of contrast media.
Key points of CONTRAST by Qaelum
- Vendor neutral solution to monitor contrast media usage in your facility
- Insights engine automatically detects deficiencies and issues requiring attention
- Analyzes and evaluates contrast usage on protocol, operator, device or hospital level
- Benchmarks between injectors
- Discover trends, improve efficiency, reduce costs and offer quality
- Integrates with our other solutions for multidimensional optimization
Regulatory compliance
- Monitors contrast usage
- Automatically informs of missing contrast information in your EMR or RIS system
- Reduces errors in contrast handling and administration
- All information and user activity is centralized for efficient follow up and improvement plans
- Incidents related to contrast can be registered and follow-up reports generated using customizable templates (integration with FORMS by Qaelum)
- Simple access to written documentation on contrast procedures (integration with FORMS by Qaelum)
Key Performance Indicators – KPIs
- Performance metrics are assessed and monitored on a continuous basis
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- Efficiency metrics including the number of studies, contrast volume per procedure, study and injection durations, and many more
- Clinical quality metrics like errors in practice and deviations from reference contrast volumes
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- Smart dashboards offer a quick glance at the monthly KPI behavior
- Performance and efficiency enhancement using tangible indices
Patient, exam, hospital level
- Comprehensive analysis of contrast media usage on a managerial level to ensure necessary follow up
- Contrast media volume and number of administrations are recorded
- Cumulative metrics as well as benchmarks with predefined threshold values are calculated
- Administration characteristics like injection location, duration and pressure are considered per exam
- Automated insights identify outliers, potentially incorrect data entries, dose exceedances and suggest corrective actions
Trends
- Contrast trends over time provide an overall evaluation of usage and costs, in addition to the static monitoring of contrast and relevant metrics
- Determine recurring problems using automated insights
- Follow all key indices over time in selected time frames to assess how indices evolve and how targeted interventions influence practice
- Focus on specific injectors, operators, bodyparts, etc. using multiple filter options for a better understanding of your department
Cost estimation and optimization
- Estimation of contrast material expenses
- The full picture of contrast costs: by program name, contrast medium, and operator, as well as cost comparisons between devices and protocols
- Optimization of new contrast material orders based on derived statistics
- Simulation of cost scenarios by price adjustment and recalculation
Flexible data collection
The Contrast Management module is a vendor-neutral solution that integrates into your existing IT infrastructure using industry standards. It collects its data from PACS systems, directly from the injector itself, or from already available radiation dose management systems. For some selected injectors, data in textual format is also supported.
