Digital interaction with patients as a tool for reducing the city outpatient radiology department professional workload and financial costs

Annual performance of tens of thousands of X-ray examinations is accompanied by a high demand of patients for image obtainment and transmission to other health facilities. It is necessary to optimize image transmission channels using safe, prompt and cost-effective solutions in order to reduce financial and organizational losses in the radiology department. Objective. To identify production losses arising from the provision of digital copies of medical images at the patient’s request in the city polyclinic and assess the potential economic impact of the transition to diagnostic image transmission through the Public Services Portal of the Russian Federation. Materials and methods. A mapping of recording medical images on optical discs according to the Rosatom method with an assessment of time and labor costs was done. The economic effect was calculated on the basis of: labor intensity of the process, salary statistics of medical personnel of Saint Petersburg, annual demand for optical disks, average cost of disks according to 20 government contracts. Results. The mean time of medical image copies transmission on optical discs is 37.32±1.34 min, including transfer — 17.57±0.43 min, waiting — 8.30±0.93 min and labor intensity — 11.45±1.34 min. The value stream lead time amounts to 51.3% under current conditions. The transition to diagnostic image transmission through the Public Services Portal of the Russian Federation can reduce the labor intensity of the process to 1.47 min, which is equivalent to the release of 0.28 medical personnel wage rate with an annual volume of 2500 services and working time fund of 1483 hours in 2024. Economic effect of the reduction of labor intensity — 424.87 thousand rubles, additionally due to the abandonment of CD-R — 49.83 thousand rubles. The total predicted effect is 474.70 thousand rubles per year. Conclusions. The implementation of diagnostic image transmission through the Public Services Portal of the Russian Federation significantly reduces the labor intensity of the process, production losses and financial charges. Optimization frees up the working time of medical staff and reduces material costs, making the approach effective for city polyclinics.